Path Built On Graves
by shini-amaryllis
Summary: There was a file on an Accomodator named Allen D. Campbell in the archives, an Accomodator who had been MIA for longer than Komui had been in charge, a baby with a malformed left hand who had had Innocence forced into his body in the womb. And then Allen Walker found his way to the European Branch. The missing and presumed dead son of General Maria Walker had returned.
1. Lotus Blossoms

**Disclaimer: Katsura Hoshino owns D. Gray Man**

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter One: Lotus Blossoms**

**AN: So I got re-obsessed with DGM recently and started talking with thebeingofeverything about a fic where Allen is actually the son of an exorcist and a Noah, so this is a massive au and I've posted about it a lot on tumblr. I have no idea how au this is gonna be, but I guess we'll find out. Maria is like a tweaked version of 'Grave of Maria' but I've revamped her and obviously she's still alive.**

**The song that is sung in this chapter is the english version of the one in the anime, so its probably not completely translated, but I liked how it sounded, so I used it**

* * *

Bak Chang's hands were shaking. There was blood smeared on his pristine white lab coat and on his chin and cheek. His eyes were red from crying, but that wasn't going to bring him parents back.

What had they been thinking, prohibiting Fou from protecting them?

(Bak couldn't even be angry at the Guardian with the distress and sorrow on her face)

He didn't know what to do…there was only one person he wanted to call, but—

_"What you're doing here is inhumane, and one day it's going to cost you more than you know. I don't ever want to hear from you again, Tui."_

And yet, Bak was already shakily picking up the phone to connect to the golem in question. "It's Bak," he rasped out, "something's happened…will you- will you _please_ come?"

There was silence on this other end and Bak remembered how well she held grudges, but then a voice spoke.

_"Of course, darling. I'll open a Gate directly."_

Bak almost sobbed in relief, turning around to see the floor rippling as several shards of light burst from the floor, one with a bold seven on it. He'd never understood how the Ark worked, she'd never explained it very well, perhaps on purpose, but Bak did know that it allowed her to move between places almost instantaneously. A true marriage of skills, she'd once said with so much pain that he couldn't bring himself to pry.

A body stepped lightly through Gate, shattering it behind her as she did so.

Maria Walker now wore the gold instead of silver in her uniform to designate her recent ranking as general. That was surprising; the last time he'd seen her, she'd still worn silver. The golem fluttering at her side was a midnight blue with a cross spread across its body. Supposedly it was identical to the one Marian Cross possessed, but no one had ever brought that up to her, which was probably wise.

Muncanpy, it seemed, was a bit anxious at the state of Bak, fluttering nervously in the air.

Maria's eyes widened and then her eyes flicked around to the devastation and the blood before resettling on Bak, reaching out a hand to rest on his shoulder with concern.

"Bak," she said with infinite gentleness that could only be possessed in the sight of such carnage, "are you all right?"

The grey eyes so concerned when the last time he'd seen them they'd been alight with fire was what really broke him.

Bak fell into his friend's shoulder and sobbed, clinging to her like he was ten, not twenty-one, undoubtedly staining her front red, but neither of them moved for the longest time. Her arms secure around him, humming softly in a way that was calming.

That had to have been an effect of her innocence, but Bak didn't comment on it.

"Now," she said, once he'd pulled back, the sobs fading into hiccups, "tell me what happened."

Once he was done, all she did was sigh and say "I need a drink."

* * *

The whole Second Exorcist Program was enough to make Maria's skin crawl. The Noah she could handle -or not, she had to concede, they still terrified her-, but the Order…that was a whole different can of worms and she'd always been happier as far away from headquarters for as long as possible.

She twisted the band on her finger around and around; a nervous habit she'd picked up over the years. Nea would've been so furious to realize what they'd done to her, the Order, and he would've ripped apart everyone in his way.

But Nea was dead and Maria was alone.

(His smile was bright and infectious as he pressed an ear to her stomach, knowing he wouldn't be able to hear the baby yet. "If it's a boy, let's name him Allen."

"Allen?" Maria laughed.

"Why? Don't like it?" Nea's grin hadn't faded.

"It just seems a bit _simple,"_ Maria smiled softly. "I like Allen.")

"I thought I heard a familiar sigh."

Maria blinked, shutting the folder in her hands quickly to look up, a smile on her lips at the familiar deep tones of Noise Marie. "_Marie!"_ but then she faltered.

There was a thick bandage across his eyes and he was feeling carefully along the wall.

She set the folder down to stride towards him, worry clinging to her very bones.

"I probably look quite a sight, don't I?" Marie chuckled faintly and Maria forced herself to smile even though he couldn't see it.

"A sight for sore eyes, of course, Marie," she joked but it came off a bit choked. "Oh, _Marie."_ She took his hand and he squeezed it. "Marie, what _happened?"_

"Oh, the usual," Marie said simply. "Akuma attack. I got lucky, others didn't." His smile was far too carefree. "I will never see again, but my hearing, it seems, is becoming more attune." There was a lengthy pause. "And how are you, Maria?"

"It's currently up for debate," Maria's lips twisted at the long-familiar response. She'd given up saying she was fine a long time ago.

She hadn't been fine in years. She hadn't been fine since Nea kissed her for the last time and sent her through the Gate, his child growing in her belly. She hadn't been fine since the Order had locked her in chains upon her return. She hadn't been fine since they experimented with forcing innocence into her until her body rejected it. She hadn't been fine since they took her son, little Allen with his deformed left arm, her little musician, from her.

Maria had been burning alive with a flame that had threatened to consume her for as long as she remembered.

"Froi asked me to check in on you," she added, "I was with him when Bak called through Mun." She held out a finger to allow her midnight blue golem to perch, rubbing at his body with a thumb. "He was concerned about you."

_"Froi?"_ Marie tilted his head slightly, a smile faint on his lips. "Since when are you and Master so close?"

If he'd been able to see the gold in her uniform, he wouldn't have needed to ask.

"He was giving me advice," Maria said simply. "One general to another."

It took a second for it to hit.

Marie's lips parted in surprise, well, not completely. The rumor was that Maria had broken past 100% synchronization at age seventeen, of course, she never confirmed nor denied that fact; she'd never liked to tell the Order anything if she could help it. The whole issue with her pregnancy and marriage had set her back on the path to general, but evidently, they'd decided she was trustworthy enough now, which probably annoyed her more. "Should I congratulate you?"

"Only if you're offering me alcohol," Maria decided wryly before withdrawing a flask from within her uniform. She'd never been much of a drinker, not even after all the trauma that happened with her pregnancy, but she carried a flask on her at all times, to be drunk when necessary, and this was _pretty_ _necessary._

She took a swig before taking Marie's hand to slide it around the flask. He recognized it without too much difficulty and brought it to his lips, swallowing twice. Marie was even less of a drinker than Maria, so that he's even take one swallow was surprising; it must've been an exceptionally bad day, not just for Bak.

"How are your injuries?" Maria stoppered the flask as he returned it to her. Her throat ached to sing a song of healing. Healing had never been her strongest suit and her innocence had drawbacks. Using certain notes to heal the body had a weakening affect on her own body so she rarely ever used it.

Grave of Maria, as she so aptly named her innocence at thirteen, was an innocence that could warp reality. She had initially called in Creation, since that was what it did, it created different effects through different notes and songs. Healing was so taxing because she was affecting things that were already present that was made up of so many cells that were different from each other, rather than starting from scratch; it was harder to repair organs than it was to construct a weapon or create an illusion. It was better to just leave injuries as is than leave herself open to attacks in her weakened state.

"Nothing that can't be left to heal on their own," Marie assured her and her hands dropped to her side. "But I could use a guide on a walk."

It was an invitation if ever Maria saw one. "Of course." She took him hand to rest it on her shoulder, which he gave a squeeze as she stepped forward.

"I forgot you liked to spend a lot of your time at the Asian Branch before…"

"Better the Asian Branch than Central." Maria couldn't resist the full-body shudder. She pressed one hand against her stomach like she could still feel where they'd pressed the innocence into her.

"Which one is your favorite?" Marie needed to distract himself, so asking the usually tight-lipped Maria seemed like a good way to alleviate that.

"You know, I always had a soft spot for the European Branch…"

"Closer to home?"

"Home was everywhere," Maria snorted, "I grew up in a traveling circus as a tightrope walker that did tricks while singing…home was never really a _place."_

What did you say when home was a person who didn't exist anymore? Maria's wedding band felt cold on her finger as she remembered Nea's malevolent smile when they first met that morphed into something soft and unbelievably fond. The warmth of his arm around her waist, chest-to-chest as they kissed had been the best feeling in the world. His sheer excitement when she told him she was with child had warmed her soul.

Now Maria was just tired beyond measure.

"Oh, there's someone you should meet," Marie said, jerking Maria out of her misery. "The boy who was with me…he saved my life more than a few times…I think the one that did all this—" Marie waved his unencumbered hand. "—was a friend of his and he's not really letting anyone near him."

Maria arched her eyebrow. "And you think he'll let me?"

"You're a lot alike," Marie said rather blithely.

Maria's eyebrow twitched that time and she glowered. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Oh, _nothing."_

* * *

Yu hadn't let go of the Innocence in his hand since he used it to rip Alma apart. It felt warm in his hand, almost alive, as grotesquely shaped as it was. Yu's scowl deepened as he tried not to think about the assortment of lotus blossoms around him, the illusion that he couldn't shake.

"You must be Yu." One of the blossoms faded away as a body sat down next to Yu, not too close but not too far, either, but Yu hated the intruding presence nonetheless.

It was a woman wearing a uniform like Marie's, on with gold instead of silver. She had a soft smile on her lips and kind grey eyes, brown hair tumbling down her back despite the ponytail. There was a strange object resting on her shoulder, it looked vaguely like a golem, but those were mechanical.

Yu scrutinized it intently, startling when it bared teeth in a grin.

"Marie told me about you," the woman continued, "he thought we should talk."

"He should mind his own _business,"_ Yu growled, crossing his arms and angling himself away from her. "Who are you, anyways?"

"General Maria Walker," the woman said simply, not really looking at him, her attention faced forward.

"_You're_ a general?" Yu countered, heavy on the doubt.

"Yes, I don't suspect I look much like one," Maria mused, unconcerned.

"Why don't you have Innocence, then?" Yu looked her up and down, still doubtful; she carried no weapons, how useful could she be in a fight?

She lips twisted then into an amused smirk. "You think I don't?"

Yu blinked and, in that time, dark ink appeared to spread across her throat like bars with circles and lines dancing between the lines. And then she opened her mouth and began to sing. The sound was unearthly and it echoed eerily in the silence.

Then she handed him an actual lotus blossom.

"I hear you have hallucinations," she said simply, the marks on her throat disappearing undoubtedly after she ceased the activation. "Speaking as someone who can bend reality to her will and struggles with her own trauma, hallucinations aren't exactly _unusual_ to me."

"What do you see?" Yu's eyes were narrowed in suspicion and Maria's smile was pained.

"See? Nothing. Hear? Now that's something else entirely." But she didn't elaborate on it, instead she changed the subject. "How much do you know about the Second Exorcist Project that you were a part of?"

"Why?" Yu sneered. "Gonna run off and tell people what I know?"

"Child," Maria's tone was very direct as she drew his chin to face her and those eyes of hers were icy cold, "if you wish to find which of us hates the Order more, you'll find that you will _lose."_

Yu jerked his head away from her touch, almost turning himself completely away from her. The lotus blossom was crumpled in his hand but the illusions remained.

"You know," she said in a rather mild sort of voice, "I hear that there was once an exorcist who likened himself to a lotus blossom…his name was Mugen…do you know what that name means?"

_"Don't care,"_ Yu growled.

"It means dream, fantasy, or infinite…not a bad name for a sword for a boy who can't stop hallucinating about flowers while wearing his friend's blood."

Yu snapped with a roar, lurching towards her -_she was undefended, she was slow, she would get hit-_ but he, like many before, underestimated how one swift move by Maria Walker could unravel an offensive.

Instead, he collided with her chest, his clenched and shaking fist impacting against the wall. She wound her arms around him, one cupping the back of his head where it came up over her shoulder. "I know it hurts, but bottling up all that rage will be the death of you, Yu. Let it out, be angry, throw things, cry, but don't keep it locked inside. It will twist and fester and it will turn you into something you hate…but you are allowed to mourn Alma, even after everything, and anyone who says different deserves to be punched."

_Alma_. Yu trembled, and at long last the flood came in sobbing wails. _I'm sorry, Alma, but I wanna live._

Yu'd killed him, his _friend,_ before Alma could kill him first and everything was a _mess _and Yu wanted things to go back to the way they'd been before, as impossible as it was.

Maria's body was warm and her voice was soothing, lulling him off to sleep, his outburst of rage and sobs subsiding. Yu was mostly out of it, focusing more on the gentle humming emanating from her than how she maneuvered Yu in her arms and picked him up with ease.

"You found him," came a relieved voice, "is he all right?"

"He probably just needs some rest…and some new clothes, Bak—"

"I've got it." Bak, that was Edgar and Tui's son, Yu's muddled mind supplied. He was the one that had been scared shitless when Yu dragged himself out of the canal after Alma kicked him into it, trying to get him to safety.

Yu felt cold suddenly as his shirt was removed but then it was replaced. Fingers smoothly buttoned the buttons as he was placed on the bed.

"You've got a look on your face…it's making me nervous," Bak's voice certainly reflected that.

"Most things about me make people nervous," Maria replied dryly. "I'm considering breaking one of my biggest rules."

"Which one? Is it the one about murdering your way through Central HQ, because you never really need a _reason _for that one."

Maria snorted. "Apprenticeships, Bak, the one on _apprenticeships."_

"Ah…guess you liked him, then."

Fingers tucked a loose lock behind Yu's ear. "I rather think he's like me."

"He's probably worse, Maria."

She chuckled. "Oh, Bak, you've just never seen me _completely_ pissed off."

Footsteps drew away from Yu and the bed sank on one side. Yu opened an eye tiredly as Maria slid an arm underneath him to bring him against her side slightly.

"Get some sleep, Yu," she said before opening her mouth and beginning to sing.

_"Falling fast asleep, may this little boy find blissful dreams_

_Among the ash and the flames that light up the night sky_

_One by one, falling softly_

_With your silhouette casting shadows on your lovely face_

_I watch the sky as a million dreams are shining _

_Little dreams, little dreamer…"_

Yu forgot the rest of the lullaby as he fell completely asleep, only to jerk himself awake in what felt like minutes, but couldn't have been. He sat up, looking around in confusion. It looked like a medical room of sorts, but not like any that Yu had ever been in. His warped sword-like Innocence rested at his side.

The bed beside him was cold and empty and it shouldn't have bothered him but for some reason it did.

"Ah, you're awake," came a surprised admission and Yu looked over to see Bak Chang standing in a new lab coat that wasn't painted with blood, still looking somber and tired. "Maria thought it was best to let you wake up on your own…you've been sleeping for close to a day."

Yu's stomach gurgled suddenly and painfully and he wrapped his arms around himself with a wince.

Bak allowed himself a chuckle. "You're probably hungry. After you clean up—"

But Yu was already moving, throwing off the sheets to rush out of the room, sword in hand, making for the cafeteria. Retrospectively, Yu should've thought about all the carnage that Alma had caused, and even a day later, there was still a lot of repairs going on. Yu stubbed his feet on several sharp pieces of rock, following the sound of voices until he reached the cafeteria, bursting with light.

"I'd forgotten how much you eat," Marie's voice was easy to pick out and Yu twisted his head in his direction only to stare. Marie was sitting across from Maria who had a rather massive pile of dishes.

"Parasitic-types are the worst," Maria agreed without a care before swallowing down some pasta.

"How can you eat so much?" Yu couldn't help the question bursting from his lips, too astounded.

Maria paused, looking up to see Yu standing there. "Oh, you're awake, sleep well, darling?"

Yu scowled at the endearment. "_Fine."_

She handed him a plate of lo mein and some kind of chicken, enticing him to sit down and Yu had half the mind to refuse, but then his stomach gave a rather audible growl and Marie smiled, patting the seat next to him so he didn't have to feel the need to sit next to Maria, who was a confusing muddle of 'you pissed me off last time but also kept me company and sang me to sleep so I don't know what to think of you' to Yu.

"Parasitic-type is one of two types of innocence," she indulged him after he'd taken a bite of food, setting his Innocence beside him. "It's where your weapon is part of your body. Mine is my vocal chords."

"Maria is currently the only Parasitic-type in the Order," Marie informed Yu, who slurped up his noodles. "It's the rarer type."

"So, what're you, then?" Yu scrutinized Marie. He'd never really seen the man with a weapon but he still wore the exorcist uniform, so he had to have _something._

"Marie is an Equipment-type, like you," Maria swallowed down some tea. "It's a type of Innocence that manifests as an item the exorcist uses. Yours, it seems, is some kind of sword, though it'll need to be reforged to suit you. Marie's is Noel Oregano, those rings on his fingers? That's his Innocence." Marie wriggled his fingers for Yu, who saw now that he had a metal ring on each finger.

"What do they do?"

Marie's lips twitched. "You'll just have to see them in action, I suppose." He held out his cup and Maria clicked hers against it with a light laugh.

Irritation swelled inside Yu and he glowered at both of them, though it had more of an effect on Maria, since she could see it, _see and disregard_. Yu made an annoyed grunt under his breath and something a bit unsavory that made Marie choke and Maria snort.

"Alma's body has been destroyed, I have personally seen to it," Maria told Yu suddenly and his heart stalled in his chest briefly. He hated how his hands shook and when he looked up Maria's eyes were gentle. "He won't be used in any further experimentation."

Yu's tongue felt thick and heavy in his mouth, conflicting emotions warring inside him, ultimately leading into _gratitude_. All he had been thinking about was how they'd do something to Alma's body, whatever they had done before to make him and Alma in the first place from dead exorcists, and she—

"_Thank you."_

Maria's eyebrows rose on her forehead.

It was the first time that he had said those words aloud and there was a heaviness in those two words, full of more gratitude than possibly was capable of conveying.

"It's no problem, darling," she said warmly, "_of course,_ Central isn't pleased with me, but they're a bunch of assholes and I don't give two fucks."

Marie chuckled. "I think you give a bit _less _than two, Maria."

"You're probably right," Maria agreed, amenable, fingers tugging on the sides of her golem's face, stretching far before snapping it back. "They want to integrate you into the exorcist forces," she added to Yu, who tensed up again. "And you need a last name for that."

"A last name?" Yu was too thrown off to scowl.

"Like I've got Walker and Marie…um…" Maria faltered, her head tilting as she considered the recently-blinded exorcist. "I gotta ask, Marie, is Noise your actual first name?"

Marie swallowed his food. "Is Maria your actual first name?" he countered.

Maria scowled darkly. "All right, I'll give you that one." She turned back to Yu. "How do you feel about…Kanda? Yu Kanda?"

Yu played with the name over and over in his head. It rolled off the tongue pretty well and that was all that really mattered, right? Yu gave a nod.

"Good," Maria smiled. "Generally, new exorcists are assigned to generals to complete at least a year apprenticeship with them, obviously you're a bit of a unique case, but I've made it clear to them that I intend to take you on as my apprentice."

The newly named Yu Kanda dropped his chopsticks with a loud "HUH?!"

* * *

"Oh, Millennium Earl ̴" Road Kamelot sang as she skipped to where the Earl himself sat, for once appearing in his human form. "I have news I think you'll find _in-ter-est-ing ̴!"_

"Oh?" The Earl lifted his head from where he was knitting a blanket -really, Road didn't understand his interest with _knitting_\- to see Road holding a piece of paper. "What is it?"

"It's a marriage certificate ̴" Road was positively gleeful. "Between one Nea D. Campbell and one Maria Walker ̴!"

The Earl's eyes widened. The Earl's beloved Fourteenth…the Musician Noah…he'd had a _wife?_

And to the Noah, family always came first.

"I want her found." Found and brought to him. Nea's twin brother had disappeared with the Fourteenth, but if the wife still lived…then she had to know something about all that had happened with Nea, and if there was one thing about Nea the Earl wanted, it was answers.


	2. Choice Made

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter Two: Choice Made**

**AN: Reminder that this fic is very AU, so a lot of canon is going to be changed, thrown out, and, rarely, kept, depending on how I see fit.**

* * *

The morgue was dark and cold when Maria flipped the light on, casting shadows on the multitude of body bags there. There had been more, Maria knew, she'd read the report; thirty-five dead, including Alma of the Second Exorcist Program. Ten had been cremated already, as was customary, and Maria knew there had been rumors about maybe using Alma's cells in a new program, which was why she'd acted so quickly to thoroughly destroy his body.

She'd told Bak immediately.

"I didn't think you'd object, given…" she waved a hand around the general area and Bak heaved a heavy sigh, looking down at his mother's Branch Head white coat, rubbing furiously at his eyes. He was very young, almost too young to be the new Branch Head of the Asian Branch, but his mother and father were the respective Branch Head and Assistant Branch Head, it only made sense that the position would fall to the one that followed them and listened most dutifully to their instructions.

Bak drifted off.

"Bak? Darling?" Maria's touch to his shoulder jerked him back.

"Children," Bak said with shaky certainty, "should not be weapons of war."

Maria said nothing to that, merely turning him towards her and taking the coat silently from him and helping him put one arm through a sleeve and then the other before bringing it up over his shoulders and straightening it. "I feel you might've missed an interdepartmental memo, darling," she said tiredly. Maria, he remembered, had been an exorcist since a finder had seen her performing at the tender age of thirteen, her song enthralling all who heard it. "Exorcists are little more than the Black Order's property."

Bak bowed his head forward and Maria leaned hers against his. "That's a _terrible_ view."

"There's only one way to affect change, Bak," Maria sighed, "from within. If you disagree with how things are done, change them."

"I don't think Central would like that," Bak muttered.

"Ah, fuck those clergy assholes, not literally, _obviously_, I don't think they'd be very good in bed," Maria mused almost thoughtfully and Bak had to choke on a laugh. "That's why you've got to start small, Bak, then, before you know it, there will be so many changes that they didn't realize were happening until they're already in place."

She leaned back and tipped his head back. "And if the memories of everything that happened here cause you too much pain, then don't dwell on them."

"Bold words from someone who refuses to let go of the past."

It was less like a smile and more like a baring of teeth at that. She had every right to not let go of the past, in Bak's opinion, and she knew that he knew that. "I want to remember," she said finally, "I want to remember how it felt to feel Allen kick inside me, I want to remember how happy my husband was to find out I was carrying him, and I want to remember how painful it was for them to force Innocence into me and then rip my son from me. I _want_ to remember how _angry_ it makes me."

"Sounds very…_lonely,"_ Bak decided.

"Some days more than others," Maria agreed with a heavy sigh. "But I'd rather live angry than ever be hurt like that again."

She held out her hand and Muncanpy, who had been fluttering in the air by her head, plopped down.

_"Don't play this for her until she's gone back home, all right, Mun?"_ came a voice from Mun's body. Mun had the ability to record anything, but not everything he recorded was visual, and Bak was familiar with this recording of her husband. _"Maria, I love you, regardless of what the Order or my family want and even if we only get fleeting moments together, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."_

Maria hooked her fingers into Mun's mouth, tugging them out at the side, stretching the golem almost as far as it would go, her teeth gritted and her eyes shadowed. "What a _fool,"_ she rasped out.

"He loved you." Bak had never met Nea D. Campbell and had never spoken his name aloud, per Maria's request, but Maria had told him about Nea and vice versa. Nea, he knew, had been grateful that Maria had found a kindred spirit in the Order; she'd always been such a lonesome figure, even when Bak had met her when she was fourteen.

"It didn't save him in the end." Maria released her golem, who decided to settle instead atop Maria's head. If Bak saw her wipe at her eyes, he didn't mention it. She moved away suddenly. "I'll leave you alone." And she saw gone before Bak could call her back.

It had taken a lot of pacing and twisting the ring around on her finger before she'd decided to enter the morgue again. Her fingers paused on the zipper of the body bag and Maria steeled her nerves as she drew it down to reveal the face of Tui Chang.

Her hair was as dark as it had been in life, but her eyes were cloudy and her skin was stiff and pale. When Maria had been younger, she'd always seemed so impressive and larger than life, and Maria could remember when that view had changed.

Bak and Tui had been there with her when she'd given birth. She could still hear Tui's encouraging voice ("_One more strong push, Maria! You're doing great!")_ and Bak's hand gripped tight in hers as she screamed.

"My son, let me hold my son," she'd sobbed and been ignored and restrained. Bak had held him first, for Maria, when she couldn't. It had hurt more than anything, not to be able to hold her little Allen, but it had been a relief to know that he wasn't in the arms of some cold-hearted clergyman. And then Tui had taken Bak and Allen out of the room, a regretful look on her face.

Maria couldn't even remember what happened next. The memories were gone. All she remembered was footsteps and a glint of light off glasses and feeling like something was distinctly wrong in her bones.

They'd allowed her to recover at the Asian Branch after that and Maria had spent many nights screaming herself awake.

She never trusted Tui after that, and once she'd revealed the nature of the Second Exorcist Program it was just the last nail in the coffin.

But Bak, _Bak_ was Maria's closest friend, and she'd put him through so much during her recovery.

"It seems wrong to let you go without saying goodbye." Her voice echoed hollowly in the silence and she looked away from Tui's face. "I don't agree with what you did…the Second Exorcist Program was _depraved_ from the start, you _had_ to know that…but I guess what the Pope demands, the Pope receives."

Maria couldn't remove the bitter sting to her words and she didn't want to; she could be completely honest with the dead.

"I know—" Maria paused suddenly, taking in a sharp breath. "I know you tried to convince them to let me hold Allen, and I know it didn't work and that Bak was the next best thing, and _I appreciate that,_ even now I do." If she twisted the ring around her finger too much more she was going to rub the skin raw. "But I also know you did something…I don't know what it was, but it was _something_, and…and not knowing is always worse…like someone ripped open my skull and took the memories of whatever it was and then put me back together again."

Maria interlocked her fingers and tried to calm her breathing. "I'm sorry that I can't say anything nice about you now, but I can't forgive you for everything that happened."

And every time Maria tried to attempt to remember, all she got was a sharp pain and the feeling like there was something digging its way out of her eyes. It was something important, something that had to do with Nea, because she knew she'd been with him close to a month before he'd pushed her through the Gate, but recalling the details of what happened right before that was harder.

She remembered Nea being angry, not at her but at his family, which was the strangest thing, because though the Millennium Earl had done a lot of awful things through the creation of his akuma, she knew that Nea had still loved his brother, dearly.

It was a sticky sort of situation Maria had found herself in, being the sister-in-law to the Black Order's adversary…_thankfully_, the only one who'd known about their marriage, other than the priest, was Mana, Nea's twin who hadn't even been a part of the Noah Clan and had disappeared with her husband.

The stabbing pain in her eyes returned and she growled under her breath, pressing the heel of her palm into her eyes, clearing her mind. It was like being a hostage in your own head, not even allowed to be curious about your memory loss unless you wanted to experience pain.

Maria_ hated_ it.

She zipped the body bag up once more before laying a hand briefly on the one opposite Tui's. She didn't need to open it to know that it belonged to Edgar, Bak's father.

She could've said something to him, Edgar had never earned her anger except for the part he played in the Second Exorcist Project, but in the end, all Maria was capable of was giving him a brief bow of respect, her throat tight. Then she straightened up and cleared her throat loudly, shaking her head back, running a shaking hand through her hair, pulling it over one shoulder.

There was a long streak of white running through that was for the most part hidden when her hair was pulled back, the result of activating her Innocence almost past its breaking point, to when it was rendered useless for days afterwards. She'd only done it once and it had almost decimated the environment around her.

Henceforth it was limited to actual emergencies only.

Maria tightened her ponytail, gave herself one last shake and stepped out of the room only to pause and stare. "Don't you have a bedtime, Yu?"

Yu growled loudly where he was sitting against the wall, his arms locked under his knees. "Can't sleep."

Maria arched an eyebrow and Mun fluttered close to Yu, surprising him when the golem rubbed affectionately against his cheek. "H-hey!" he swatted Mun away and Maria clicked her tongue, amused when the golem instead sat on top of Yu's head.

"Relax," she smiled, "Mun's affectionate. He must like you."

"Aren't golems supposed to be…" Yu struggled to find the right word and Maria helped him out.

"Mechanical?" she offered and he nodded. "They are. The golems that the Order uses are, I should say, but Mun's different."

She made a gesture with her hand and Yu stood in order to keep up with her as she started walking.

"How?" he asked with a furrowed brow.

It was adorable, the confused look on his face paired with the golem sitting atop his head.

"Muncanpy is part of a pair of golems that were made by my husband," Maria supplied, "they're a bit more sentient than most." Mun bared his teeth at Maria, earning a smile from his master. "Communicating with him like a normal golem is hard, though, so Bak's working on a temporary communication device for me to wear…though I like people being able to contact me freely even less."

Maria grimaced at the thought of the Order being given free reign to give her orders.

"Husband?" Yu had heard the term before. "Like Tui and Edgar? They were husbands."

Maria choked on her laughter so suddenly that in order to not earn herself a glare from the young boy who was now more open than he had been the previous day. "Tui and Edgar were husband and _wife._ Edgar was Tui's husband, and Tui was Edgar's wife."

"That's…confusing," Yu muttered.

She scratched her cheek slightly with a light laugh. "Yes, I suppose it is."

Yu looked up at her then, when she wasn't looking, her grey eyes shifted away and her smile soft and sad.

"Where's your husband?"

Maria's lips twisted. "Dead. Killed by the Millennium Earl…did they ever tell you who the Earl is?"

"He's the bad guy." Yu remembered that one.

"Mostly," Maria agreed with a sigh, "though the Order does give him a run for their money with their tactics." She grimaced. "The Earl makes things called akuma…do you know what those are?"

"Just that apostles are supposed to destroy them." Yu's thoughts drifted to that hazy memory he had, of a gloved hand reaching up to the sky with a whisper of "_I love you…forever_" before a grotesque almost clown-like creature came and struck him down. "I think…I think one killed me, before."

He expected her to say something along the lines of _"Don't dwell on your past, the lotus isn't real, who you were before isn't real anymore"._ No one liked him talking about his hallucinations.

"Probably an evolved akuma," Maria mused instead. "If you'd been shot the Dark Matter would've crumpled you to ash."

Yu stared at her.

"Kid," she snorted, "I've been doing this since I was thirteen."

"How old are you now?" Yu still had a lot of trouble with guessing that. Alma was better. Tui and Edgar had always looked pretty young, but Maria hung out a lot with Bak a lot, so she had to be close to his age, right?

Wait…_how old was Bak?_

Before Yu could have a meltdown, Maria patiently told him, "I'm twenty-five."

"Okay that's, one-two-three—"

Maria waited while he counted out on his fingers until he got to "Twelve?"

"That's right," she smiled indulgently and Yu didn't know if he liked it. It gave him a tingly feeling in his stomach that he wanted to claw out. "Twelve years and I've hated almost every minute of those twelve years."

She sounded incredibly bitter, which, Yu couldn't really blame her after all that happened with Alma.

"Do I have to be an exorcist?" He couldn't help the question.

For a long moment Maria didn't answer him. "Unfortunately, accommodators of Innocence get no choice in the matter. If you'd found on the street they would've dragged you here regardless, kicking and screaming if necessary."

"Did they do that to you?" Yu couldn't silence the question.

Maria hummed softly, an almost haunting tune that sounded like the one she'd sung to him the night before.

"Do you know what a circus?" she asked him finally and Yu shook his head. "It's kind of like…a group of people with different skills coming together and putting on a show. There's clowns, fire-breathers, and there were tightrope walkers, like me. My balance was very good and I'd been so _eager_ to get away from the orphanage I'd been living in…" Maria tugged on the end of her ponytail. "So, I sang and crossed that tightrope until my feet blistered and then some. I had no idea that my singing had an affect on the audience, I was more preoccupied with keeping my balance, but a finder noticed." Her mouth thinned into a hard line. "I was thirteen when they sent me out to fight in a war that I wanted no part in and under a master who abandoned me when I needed him the most."

Mun lifted from Yu's head bump slightly against Maria's cheek, making her smile. She knelt down so her head was level with Yu's.

"I offered to be your master because I am your best-case scenario, and that is unfortunately all that you are afforded." The grimace warped across her face. "Cross Marian is notorious for never taking on students and if he would, I have no doubt that he'd foist all his debt on them because he's absolutely _psychotic."_ The expression on her face was now pure annoyance. "Froi Tiedoll is a good man, but he can be a bit…_overbearing_ and someone who dislikes physical contact like you do might take offense. Winters Sokalo…" Maria shuddered. "That man's Innocence is called _Madness_, let's leave it at that. Klaud Nine has her own student and Kevin Yeegar…" Disdain twisted into something sharp and wrathful. "_Well_, I'd rather not throw you under the train with _that one_…that being said, you _do_ have the choice, and those are all just my opinions."

Yu was a bit thrown off about the whole 'making decisions' thing, because he was used to being told what to do.

_'Yu, try to bind with the Innocence'_

_'Yu, don't fight with Alma or your arm is going to fall off again'_

_'Yu, we're going to put you to sleep now that you won't wake up from'_

And here was Maria Walker who had waltzed into his life and never told him it wasn't okay for him to have those hallucinations of his, who let him get angry about what a shitty situation his life was, who sang him to sleep and made him eat when he didn't want to.

"Is she always like that?" Yu had asked Marie after she'd gone off the previous day with a small tray of food for Bak.

"Calm? Or kind?" Marie had been amused by the question. "I don't think she's calm _all_ the time, she has her fuses that blow from time to time. But Maria's always been kind…she was going to be a mother, actually, but the Order took her baby from her. So, I think she's very motherly, and sees you as a child that needs a guiding hand."

Yu hadn't known how to feel about that.

"No one's ever given me options before," he said finally.

"Take your time," Maria advised, "there's no need to make hasty decisions."

And then they walked in silence all the way back to the sleeping area and Yu couldn't help but think Maria looked tired and immeasurably sad.

* * *

Maria awoke to the phantom touch of warm fingers along her arm, warm breath skittering across her skin as a kiss was pressed to her shoulder, and then the curve of her neck, and finally against her cheek.

"I'll be back before you wake up," Nea promised in a whisper, leaning back, the bed deepening as he sat on the edge, rustling about.

Maria opened her eyes tiredly and rolled over. "Darling?" the endearment was slightly slurred with sleep. "What's going on?"

"Don't worry about it," Nea assured her, leaning down to press a light kiss to her lips. "Mana just needs help with something…I'll be back before you wake up completely, I promise." He kissed her one last time and Maria's eyes drifted close, the last thing she saw being Nea pulling his coat up over his shoulders.

She shot awake with a gasp, lurching in the bed, her hand outstretched in front of her as if trying to grab at Nea's shoulders from within the dream. Mun fluttered around her anxiously.

Maria pressed the hand against her eyes, her shoulders trembling with restraint, but that didn't stop the tears from cascading down her cheeks.

Muncanpy did what only Muncanpy could do; he expanded to a size large enough for Maria wrap her arms around and bury her face into. Mun's mistress was such a sad and somber figure without Mun's master; Mun wished he had more to offer but also knew what he had to offer was enough.

She fell back asleep, her arms still wound around him and it was like when Nea had first gifted Mun to Maria, surprised and delighted at sixteen. "An apology," he'd said at the time, like he hadn't created Mun with her in mind, "for all the times I tried to kill you."

It had made her laugh, but she'd fallen asleep the first night with her arms around Mun. Now, it was not so different, Mun just hoped that one day Maria wouldn't smell so much of misery.

* * *

Maria's song had transformed Yu's Innocence into a form that suited him. She told him it was a _katana_, a Japanese sword.

"It's a bit long for you, but you'll grow into it, if you live long enough."

_"Maria!"_ Marie's exasperation was clear. "You can't just _tell him that!"_

"Oh, are we lying to minors?" Maria arched an eyebrow. "Darling, leave that to the church, we exorcists have to be _realistic."_

Yu liked that about Maria, the brutal honesty that reminded him of Tui -yet, somehow, he appreciated it more in Maria than he ever had with Tui.

"Have you come up with a name yet?"

_"There was once an exorcist who likened himself to a lotus blossom…his name was Mugen…do you know what that name means? It means dream, fantasy, or infinite."_

"Mugen," Yu decided, missing the amusement that spread across her lips at the name of his previous life, or that he'd even taken her suggestion in the first place.

"Not a bad name," Marie complimented. Yu shrugged; it was just a name. Maria's lips twitched as she knelt in front of him to do up the buttons of his new exorcist uniform even though Yu grumbled "I can do it myself" under his breath. "Where'll you be heading?"

"I hear there's an infestation of akuma in England, around the Keswick region," Maria mused, "I feel that'll be a good place for Yu to get his feet wet, so to speak, and if we run into any along the way—" She shrugged, even though he couldn't see it.

"Taking the long or short way?" Marie asked, making Yu frown in confusion.

"Long," she said without thinking too much about it, "I'd prefer to use it as little as possible."

Yu looked from her to Marie without comprehension, but neither offered an explanation.

"Come along, student, we have places to be." Maria smiled before darting up to kiss Marie's cheek. "We'll be _seeing_ you around, Marie, and you'll be _hearing_ from us."

"Haha," Marie said without humor, though his lips twisted in amusement that put pains to that idea.

Yu looked down at his uniform compared to his new master's. The rose cross on his breast and the accents were silver and it was long, almost reaching the floor, but Maria's fit her better, more like a tunic paired with trousers than anything else, a long beige overcoat pulled up over her shoulders so that she wasn't drowning in the black.

"I'm worried about Bak, though," Maria told Marie quietly, "Will you…will you keep an eye on him while you recover?"

Marie took her hand and squeezed it, his smile rather indulgent, but Maria appreciated it nonetheless. "I'll do what I can."

_"Thank you_," she breathed in obvious relief and Mun bobbed on her shoulder. She'd already said goodbye to him and felt how his shoulders had shaken and how he'd clung to her, just like when she'd come out of the Gate. Recovery, she knew, took time, and Maria was still healing, even years later.

She lifted a hand to rub against Mun where he was positioned, his presence as soothing as it had been the previous night. Mun rubbed against her hand in response.

"Got everything, darling?" Maria asked Yu, her smile back in place and it didn't seem quite so forced. Yu simply nodded. "All right, then."

"Good luck, Kanda!" Marie called after them as Yu followed his new master out into the sunlight.

The world is dark and hard to breathe was what he had first thought when he'd awoken in the lab, but the air was lighter now and he had a master to steady his footing. Maybe it wasn't the path he would've chosen, but he had been given a choice in the end.

"Reminiscing already, Yu? We've barely even left the Asian Branch!"

Yu growled. _"I am not!"_

"Well, then, hurry up, darling!" Maria laughed where she was ahead of him, the sunlight turning her eyes silver as she smiled. "We haven't got all day!"

And Yu picked up the pace, ready for the next chapter of his life.

* * *

**AN: Maria is a very tragic, very sad character and its going to be interesting writing her finding meaning in training Kanda :) **

**Mun is definitely like a cross between a cat and a dog in how he behaves, but he's not your usual golem.**


	3. Sought After

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter Three: Sought After**

**AN: Kanda and Maria's relationship is gonna be so interesting to write**

* * *

"Nea D. Campbell…who's that again?"

Tyki scratched at the stigmata at the edge of his temple as he looked down at the picture. He couldn't deny there was some likeness there. As a general note, Noah didn't tend to look very alike; Tyki looked very different from Road and the Earl in his human form.

Maybe Tyki should grow out his hair…

"I forgot you've still got memory loss," Road sighed, "reincarnating is _such_ a hassle."

Tyki choked on his cigarette. "_Eh?"_

"There are fourteen Noah, well, there _were,"_ she had to correct herself with a grimace, "Nea was the Fourteenth Noah, the Musician, and six years ago, for some unknown reason, he went berserk and killed most of the Noah…it's probably better that you don't remember how he killed you in your previous life, Joyd."

"So, he's a traitor, then."

"_Well…"_ Road made a so-so gesture, her face full of doubt.

Tyki arched an eyebrow. "He massacred us and you _don't know?"_

"There's some debate about what happened and if he was in the right mind…but he vanished and so did his twin brother."

Tyki held up the marriage certificate, reading the names listed. "So, you think this Maria Walker knows something since she married him?"

"Husbands and wives keep no secrets, right?" Road's eyes gleamed.

"I suppose." Tyki had never been married so he wouldn't have known either way. "But how exactly does the Earl expect us to find her?"

Road sighed. "If Wisely was awake, we would be able to find her without any trouble." Wisely, aptly named the Noah of Wisdom, was a telepath, but like most of the Noah Clan, he hadn't been reincarnated yet. "So, it's the old-fashioned way."

"Hunting down the priest that married them and getting some clues?" Tyki offered helpfully and the impressed look Road gave him for the suggestion soured his mood. "_Hey!_ I'm not the one still in school!"

Road glared back. "Find the priest."

"Why me?"

"What else are you doing?" Road sniffed. "It's got to be more interesting than mining."

Tyki glowered at her. He didn't think she really considered how enjoyable it was that he had two different sides of himself, two that were so different from each other. He might've been the Noah of Pleasure, but his pleasure came from those aspects rather than any act he could perform.

He looked down to the marriage certificate. "Father Clark Ogden of Chichester, hm?"

The Earl wouldn't mind if Tyki let out his dark side to play completely, not if he got him the information he wanted. Tyki hadn't killed anyone lately, so it would be fun to let loose a little, and if the human knew anything about his brother and his sister-in-law, then all the more reason to.

"I'll just take this with me." Tyki folded the marriage certificate and placed it in his pocket. "Have fun with your homework!"

"_Fuck you!"_ Road called after him with a pout in her voice, looking all of twelve years and not at all like the eldest of the Noah that she was.

Tyki smoothed his hair back, exposing the stigmata across his brow as he replaced the top hat on his head.

Well, this was sure to be _interesting._

* * *

Maria hadn't meant to make the broadsword it just…sort of _happened_, and then it almost sent her into a panic attack. The last time she'd seen it had been in Nea's hand, the weapon of the Millennium Earl; she'd never known if it was the genuine article or simply if he'd replicated the weapon.

She held it in one hand, a mix of black and white, a cross down the center, and she tried to focus on the carnage around her and not how it felt to hold the thing that might very well've killed her husband.

Kanda was red in the face, his hands shaking where they gripped his katana tightly, from strain, she knew; he was the boy that had killed his closest friend before he could transform into an akuma after killing all in sight.

She should've waited, she recognized belatedly. Kanda was half-trained, though very skilled, which she couldn't deny, but his use of the sword was clumsy.

Maria was already doing such a bad job and she'd barely been a master for three days. How on earth was she supposed to do this for a year?

Muncanpy fluttered by her as she stepped through destroyed remains of akuma to reach Kanda's side. "You all right, darling?"

He'd gotten used to her endearments to the point where he didn't even blink at them applied to him anymore (the first day had been full of growls).

"_Fine,"_ Kanda gasped, stabbing his sword into the ground to keep himself upright. "I can take it."

Amusement crept up across Maria's face, amusement tinged with pain. It was like looking in a mirror into the past, to the thirteen-year-old Maria still trying to find her place in the world after her life had been uprooted, so _determined_ to prove herself.

She should've known better that the Black Order would chew her up and spit her out, and it had taken her far too long to figure it out.

And Maria couldn't provide absolution anymore.

"You can't," she countered. "And that's okay. Yu, you're _nine years old_. No one's expecting you to be perfect just starting out. You're going to mess up, we _all _mess up, and you're going to end up completely drained. It happens to all of us."

Kanda's expression soured and he looked away from her.

"But there's a good training area at the European Branch," Maria continued, "and we're going to spend an awful lot of time there until you're proficient enough that you aren't struggling so terribly."

An embarrassed flush spread across Kanda's face at that, his eyes falling to the broadsword she had constructed with a bit of confusion, but it faded when she deactivated her Innocence.

"That's my fault," she continued, "I didn't think about how well you could handle the blade before we left. I should've been more attentive. Next time will be better."

Kanda looked up and she smiled wryly. "But you didn't get shot, which is a relief…there will probably be less akuma as get further away from Asia…they do tend to congregate here for some _unknown reason."_

She frowned suddenly, shaking the thought off before the pain could bloom in her eyes. "Injured anywhere, Yu?"

_Can you walk_ was the question she hadn't voiced.

"No," Kanda almost sulked but he still needed her help with righting himself.

"Well, then, come along, it's a good long walk to the station."

Kanda picked up his suitcase where it had fallen and hurried quickly over to her side in case she decided to leave without him.

"It's likely we'll end up doing a lot of train hopping, so you'll be able to catch up on some sleep, if you can actually get some sleep, that is."

Kanda _hadn't_ been about to admit that he was tired, but it was a relief to know that he would be able to rest soon.

"What did Marie mean by 'the long way'?" Kanda finally asked when they made their way onto paved ground once more.

"_Ah_." Maria's mouth twisted. "I helped create something that allows for instantaneous travel between one area and the other."

Now that sounded interesting. "Why aren't we using that?"

"Because, the Order isn't strictly_ aware_ that I have access to it," Maria gave a half sort of smirk at that. "And the Earl has access to it as well, so I have to tread carefully when I use it."

"Why does the Earl have it if you helped make it?" Kanda almost formed a pout in his confusion, but he still noticed Maria's pained smile.

"That is a story for another day," she decided, dropping a hand onto the top of his head, chuckling when he shrugged it off.

* * *

The town was very busy after they'd disembarked one train in Moscow, having an hour before the next one departed, and somehow Maria and Kanda had managed to grab some food before heading over to the train station, but Maria had gotten sidetracked when she saw something that made her heart stop in her chest.

Nea…_no_…not _quite._

The young man bore a likeness to him, there was no denying it, but there were a few differences. His dark hair was curlier and his cheekbones sharper, but the umber of his eyes was the same color as Nea's, as any Noah were.

What was a Noah doing here?

Maria narrowed her eyes as they walked past him. His skin had been a warm brown at first glance but now she could see it leeching into the grey of the Noah, almost subconsciously. He _had _to be newly awakened, then, because she remembered fighting Nea at fifteen and how flustered he'd been about not keeping his Noah side under control, even in the middle of a fight.

"Master?" Kanda frowned curiously ahead of her, Mun perched on his shoulder.

"It's nothing," she said, shaking her thoughts off, picking up the pace to reach his side before they boarded the train. This one was an overnight one, so there were bunk beds in the compartments and Kanda quietly claimed the top bunk, flopping tiredly onto the mattress. He passed out in a matter of moments.

He hadn't been getting much sleep having to go between train after train that finding out they would be staying on one overnight had been such an immense relief to him.

Maria's lips curved slightly as his breathing evened out. His face was more relaxed asleep than it ever had been when he was awake, a frown more often creasing his face than anything else.

She sat down on the lower bunk, pulling her hair out of her ponytail and letting it tumble loose, a hand massaging at the back of her head where it had been tied tight. Mun bumped affectionately against her forehead and she spared him a smile that had him grinning widely.

Her smile faltered. She'd seen the Noah board the train out of the corner of her eye…what were the chances that an exorcist and a Noah ended up on the same train? _Particularly _if the exorcist had a bit of a history with the Noah Clan to the point of actually marrying one? She figured they were slim to none.

Maria interlocked her fingers together, bracing her elbows on her knees. The Earl had never known about her and Nea, only Mana had. There was no reason to think they were looking for her, and yet, she was still the one that had the most contact with the Noah.

Mun perched on her joined hands, reminding her to breathe. She took in a shaky breath.

"You're right," she muttered to the golem so as not to awaken Kanda while he slept. "I'm just overreacting. It's probably just a coincidence…he never_ told_ anyone about me."

Mun's wings flapped against her hands as Maria tried to regulate her breathing.

It took ten minutes, but she managed it, twisting her ring around on her finger before she finally decided the room was too oppressive. Her room in Central had been larger but she'd been restrained in the bed for months upon months and Maria had never done very well in close quarters after that.

"Stay with Yu, Mun," she told the golem. "I'm going to get some fresh air."

The golem bobbed in understanding, fluttering up to nestle beside Kanda, growing slightly in size so that he might've been a teddy-bear to sleep with. Maria slid the door open and shut as quietly as she could manage, looking up the hall to see the smartly dressed Noah heading in the opposite direction, towards the compartment where they served food and beverage.

Maria narrowed her eyes and sighed. She just knew she was going to regret this, _but…_

She followed after the Noah.

* * *

Tyki had ordered a late dinner, he knew it, but that didn't change the fact that he was fucking _starving._

"Can I get some Earl Grey tea?" came a voice behind him.

"Of course, miss."

"Thanks."

Tyki took off his top hat, setting it beside him, cutting a piece of juicy steak and chewing on it when the voice came close.

"You need to be more careful."

Tyki looked up in time for a woman to sit opposite him. Her eyes were slate grey, hair falling over her shoulders in loose chestnut locks, kinked slightly like they'd been tied back for the longest time. The woman was wearing the Black Order's general uniform and for a moment Tyki tensed, but surely the Order wasn't aware of his clan.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked politely, knowing that he sounded annoyingly like his brother, Sheril.

"So…which one are you?" the woman asked archly. "You're not Road, because I know what she looks like…not Adam, because the Earl would be smarter."

Tyki's blood froze in his veins.

"Your tea, miss." The cup slid in front of the woman and she smiled and thanked the waitress before returning her eyes to Tyki.

"Not Musica, either," she considered, taking a sip of her tea. "Bondom generally travel together since they're at half-strength without the other…Mightra is more behind the scenes…" She cocked her head slightly, eyes narrowed. "I'm between Desires and Joyd, to be honest."

His Noah name stirred something deep inside him, something dark and dangerous and _uncontrollable,_ and Tyki gripped the edge of the table tightly.

"Joyd, then…you're the one that can phase through anything, right?" the woman prompted. "You can 'choose' what you wish to touch?"

Tyki had barely been a Noah a month and had barely realized that ability a week ago…_how did she—?_

"Who _are_ you?" he demanded and it was almost too loud.

The woman took a sip of her tea once more. "Colette," she said once she'd set it down.

"And an exorcist knows so much about Noah, _because…?"_

Colette shrugged. "Call it a vested interest…and if you're worried about the Order knowing what I do, don't be, what I know about the Noah are secrets I don't intend to share with the Order."

That had Tyki frowning in confusion. She twisted a ring around on her finger. Exorcists, as far as he knew, weren't allowed to be married, but it looked an awful lot like a wedding band.

She took another drink of her tea.

"Why not?" That was an odd view for an exorcist to take.

Colette snorted, amusement lightening her eyes. "Do you know how most exorcists_ become_ exorcists, Joyd?" He shook his head, curious, now. "They're dragged, kicking and screaming. Some join up out of a sense of duty, _sure, _but most are like me, _jaded and angry."_

She glanced to his hand and he followed her eyes, noticing the warm brown shifting into solid grey. Ah, _shit_. "Like I said, you need to be more careful, or people are going to notice that you're not _entirely_ human."

"A bit ironic, isn't it? An exorcist giving a Noah advice," he retorted with a snort of his own and Colette smiled thinly.

Colette drank from her teacup again. "I give advice to a lot of people," she said, unconcerned.

Tyki looked at his hand again and focused hard. The grey faded away and he sighed.

She probably wouldn't tell him, but he couldn't help but ask "How do you know so much about us?"

She reached into her jacket, then, and Tyki almost prepared for her to bring out a weapon, only to be pleasantly surprised to see it was flask. She glanced surreptitiously towards the waitress and bartender of the compartment before unscrewing the top and pouring some of the alcohol into her tea before replacing it in her jacket once more.

Colette took a sip. "Ah, that's the good stuff." Tyki never thought he would appreciate an exorcist, but pouring alcohol into tea was something that he _certainly _could, and _had_ done several times when Sheril's back was turned. "But it was my husband, he was the one that told me all about you lot."

"And your husband is…?"

Colette smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"Master?"

She looked over his shoulder and softened. "Give me a second, darling." And then her attention was back on Tyki. "Tread carefully, Joyd, or the Order will find out about your family, and it won't be from me, it'll be from _you_, being _sloppy."_

And then she downed her cup, dropped a few coins onto the table. "Congrats on the reincarnation…reminds me a bit of Musica, though."

Tyki started in his seat, staring in surprise, but she was already sliding away and he turned around in his seat to follow her to where she'd dropped a hand on top of the head of a young boy in almost the same uniform.

"Having a tough time sleeping, Yu?" was all he heard as the door slid shut behind him.

* * *

There was a compartment with a single phone on the train, rarely used because it cost more money that it did to use a regular pay phone, but _unfortunately,_ Tyki needed _someone_ to scream at.

By someone, he meant Road.

"_Don't tell me you give up already?"_ she giggled on the other end and Tyki restrained himself from rolling his eyes, though why he really bothered was up for debate.

"Tell me, what are the chances that an exorcist -_a general-_ knows something like our Noah names yet hasn't told the Order about it?" Tyki decided against beating around the bush and Road had to pause on the other end.

"_What?"_ she asked slowly, astounded. _"There's an exorcist that knows your Noah name?"_

"She told me I couldn't be you because she knew what you looked like, or the Earl -Adam-, or Musica…that Mightra worked behind the scenes and Bondom always traveled together, so she figured I was either Desires or Joyd," Tyki told her, his fingers playing across the rim of his top hat.

None of that was common knowledge, it was almost_ intimate_ knowledge, and Tyki knew that the Earl was keeping the names of the other Noah and their history close to his chest since the massacre several years ago. He and Road were the ones that knew everything; they were the only ones that had survived.

Tyki couldn't even remember what had happened during the massacre, even reincarnated, those memories eluded him. Supposedly, Wrathra had been destroyed so thoroughly that they weren't even sure if he ever could be reincarnated.

But now there was an exorcist who had spoken so many of their Noah names with such familiarity that it had Tyki curious.

"_What was her name?"_ Road asked.

"Colette."

"_Colette what?"_

"I don't know," Tyki retorted, "she just told me her name was Colette!"

"_And you didn't ask what her last name was?"_ Road's annoyance was clear.

"I was dealing with some shit!"

"_Road, are you yelling at your uncle on the phone again?"_ Tyki could faintly hear his sister-in-law's voice in the background. _"Remember that Papa wants to talk to him when you're done."_

"_Yes, Mama __̴__,"_ Road sang, ever the perfect princess. Tyki wondered if it was chance or on purpose that she'd found herself adopted into the family that had birthed one Noah.

Kamelot was Sheril's name, Tyki's was Mikk. They shared the same father but different mothers, and though they'd been raised together with the same noble upbringing, Tyki had preferred to remain out of the spotlight that his brother had made his home in.

Really, he _doubted _Road even needed to be adopted, she was the eldest of the Noah, after all.

"Tell Sheril I say hi," Tyki said, "I'll see if I can get her name, but no promises."

"_She sounds intriguing,"_ Road admitted, _"I'd want to find out what she really knows, if she knows that much about the Noah…but Maria Walker is the priority. Once we've found her, we'll deal with this Colette."_

Tyki wasn't surprised by that verdict.

"_Are you sure you don't want to talk to Papa?"_ she asked. _"He misses you."_

Tyki had been avoiding his brother since he awakened as a Noah, he just didn't know what to do or say. Their relationship had never been strained, they trusted each other, loved each other, but what did you do when you saw your younger brother with skin ashen grey and a ring of stigmata around his brow? Tyki wasn't sure.

"I've got sleep to catch up on," he said with an exaggerated yawn, "you have fun, all right, Road?"

And he ended the call before she could say anything more, smoothing his hair back and replacing the top hat, standing up swiftly and leaving the room. He didn't know about Road, but he thought it was a bit…_concerning_ that some exorcist knew more about his family than he did. Tyki only knew the Noah names of the awakened Noah, of which, there were only three. He'd assumed that it was bad form to ask, and it probably was.

Mightra, Bondom, Desires, Musica…none of those names he_ knew_, yet they still rang with familiarity.

And she'd known them…it was enough to make Tyki _curious._

He rubbed at his chin, walking down the empty aisle, pausing at the sound of a soft, lilting song.

"…_that moment you shined pure, born anew into this world_

_Across a million years, time has brought us here,_

_Our prayers burn, into the earth_

_Back where they shall return to time_

_I will never stop this prayer leaving my lips_

_Someone please show this child what love is_

_Take those tiny hands and leave a kiss…"_

The song lulled Tyki almost to sleep where he stood, before he shook it off with a yawn, making for his compartment. Only when he was about to fall asleep did he wonder if that might've been an effect of the exorcist's Innocence, and when he awakened, he'd forgotten all about it.

* * *

It had been reckless and foolish and Maria had practically been _goading _the Noah. She had never succeeded in a fight against a Noah; she and Nea had always ended in a stalemate when they'd been determined enemies and knowing there were more just like him, just as strong, if not_ stronger_, had always made her uneasy. The Millennium Earl being the head of the family gave her enough reason to be fearful.

She just knew that it was going to come back to bite her in the ass, but at this point she didn't think she cared too much.

Maria rubbed at her stomach, her old wounds aching. An akuma had almost completely bisected her when she was seventeen and repairing that damage had almost been beyond her and Nea had wreaked havoc on the akuma in the general area in retribution. Maria had been laid up in the local hospital for weeks afterwards, her abdomen heavily scarred; Maria had been more surprised that she'd managed to carry Allen to term, she'd thought it was impossible with her previous injuries.

But Allen had been her -_their-_ little miracle, until the Order had gone and tainted it.

"Sleep well, darling?" she asked out loud.

"Shaddup," Kanda grumbled from the top bunk, descending the ladder to land on his feet, fixing his boots and his hair; Maria tried to help him with his hair, but he swatted her hands away. "How many trains we still have?"

"Two more." Maria smiled at the annoyance that crossed his face. "There's a bit of a walk once we're done, though."

The train jolted to a stop as it came into the station.

"But, luckily, the European Branch has plenty of beds, so once we get in, you can pass out on a bed that doesn't rock while you're sleeping."

Kanda redid his buttons. "Who was that man you were talking to yesterday?"

"Hm?" Maria looked up from tying her hair back, surprise coloring her face briefly. "An ally of the Earl."

Kanda frowned, trying to figure out if he looked like an akuma, but it was so hard to tell.

"He wasn't an akuma, though I can understand the confusion." Kanda waited for her to elaborate, but she didn't.

"Colette, _wait!"_

Maria paused as she shut the door to their compartment, holding back the inadvertent shudder at the use of her old name, the one that she'd hated in the orphanage and in the circus. Why she told Joyd that name remained to be seen, but she couldn't deny that it was better than using her own.

She'd rather not make it a habit, telling Noah her name.

Kanda's face creased with confusion at the name.

"Yu, go up the aisle, will you?" It wasn't really a suggestion, but Kanda complied, moving away, listening hard, but the only thing he really heard was "Joyd, if I gave you all the answers, what would be the point?"

From what Kanda could see, there was an annoyed frown under his top hat.

"But best of luck in this incarnation," she smiled in a way that was sickeningly sweet, "I hear the last one didn't reach thirty."

And then she pushed Yu towards the exit before the man could respond.

"What kinda name is Joyd?" Yu asked once they'd made it out onto the street.

"The kind that you must never speak of," Maria told him flatly, hand tightening on his shoulder, "_understand?"_

Kanda wanted to question it, to question her, but when he looked up, all he saw was pain and fear.

"I understand."

* * *

**AN: Tyki and Maria are going to have a fun dynamic in this fic, that's for sure, and you guys are gonna see a lot of family moments with the Noah, because, ironically, the Earl isn't the major baddie of the fic, and Allen being Nea's son changes the relationships with the Noah a bit.**

**Very little of canon is happening, and, as you can see, Wrathra and the twins are still destroyed unlike in the manga. Desires will probably awaken before they do, but we'll see. Wisely was personally one of my favorites.**

**As always: Review!**


	4. Interrogations

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter Four: Interrogations**

**AN: the real irony is how much I didn't like the Earl when I was younger, yet when I rediscovered DGM, he was like a family man that commits occasional murder and is more likable than the Order at the moment, which is basically what he is in this fic lmao**

* * *

"It's up there?" Kanda's head was bent almost completely back, looking up the steep cliff to where the European Branch sat, high up and out of reach. Kanda just wondered if it was even worth it if he had to climb the whole fucking thing.

"Yeah, it's pretty high up." Maria squinted her eyes almost shut. It was nearly sundown and Kanda wanted nothing more than to collapse into a bed and sleep until he had to be dragged to sword training. "I once climbed all the way up because my master_ forgot_ to tell me that there was a way to get in underneath."

Kanda tried not to look too relieved because she was eying him in speculation, undoubtedly debating about making him do the same; that seemed right up her alley.

"If it was earlier, I'd make you climb," Maria admitted, proving him right, and he was suddenly thankful that one of their trains had been delayed an extra hour, "but I'm feeling nice…so we'll take the boats."

Kanda grunted and Maria almost laughed. "Come on, you whiny toad, it's not _that_ far."

She made a small gesture with her hand for him to follow after, and Kanda did so, albeit at a slower, more _cautious_ pace. Maria had gained a bit of a skip in her step the further away from Asia they had gotten, making Kanda wonder if her husband had been killed there, but he knew better than to ask.

However, when he sat down in the boat on the waterway, allowing Maria to steer them forward with an oar, he didn't think that it was much better than the train. At least the boat wasn't so _jarring_ with its movements.

There were two finders standing on either side of the stairway that led upwards from the dock when they came in and one stepped forward, ready to help tie the boat off, but the second grabbed him and shook his head.

Maria knelt to tie the boat off, not bothering to offer Kanda a hand with getting out; she knew now that he preferred doing things on his own. Then she turned to arch an eyebrow towards the pair, leaving Kanda to wonder if finders usually guarded the door.

"Welcome back, General Walker," one said officially and she narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Thank you," she said simply, dropping a hand to Kanda's shoulder. "Come along, Yu, we'll see if someone in the science department is still awake and if there's a room for you."

Kanda wasn't about to argue with that, traipsing past the pair and climbing the stairs, looking around in wonder at the spiraling tower heading up and up and up, all the way to the top.

Maria yawned widely. "I'll show you around tomorrow when we aren't quite dead on our feet…take those stairs, there."

Kanda followed her directions to a door that was thrown wide open. There were so many smells that Kanda could've gone without for his entire life, but Maria didn't seem too phased.

"Yo…section leader…is that Maria Walker?"

"Gotta be dreaming, man, _no way._ Maria hasn't been back here in months."

Maria's lips twitched. "I'd love to say hello to everyone, but I'm rather dead on my feet and I'd like a spare room for my student."

Several heads snapped towards her amidst the chaos and she softened slightly at the greetings shouted at her.

"Hey, _new guy!_ Help Maria's kid get a room!" was shouted to a thoroughly exhausted nineteen-year-old with spiky blonde hair.

"Who?" he asked tiredly, almost slurring in how nearly asleep he was, eyes flicking over to where Maria and Kanda were standing, surprise coloring his face.

"General Maria Walker," Maria said with her lips curving slightly, "my student is in need of a room."

"Hang on…Maria's actually teaching someone?"

"Didn't she say she'd never do that?"

"That's what I heard -_hey Maria—!"_

Maria cleared her throat loudly. "Another day, darlings, I'm rather tired."

Several good nights were shouted in her direction, much to her amusement and the young scientist loped in her direction, deep circles under his eyes. "All right, follow me…we've got a lot of open rooms—"

"Lots of failed experiments, I'm guessing." Her voice was carefully blank but the man still flinched, making Kanda curious. Non-expressions, he'd learned, were worse than Maria actually expressing anything she was feeling.

She noticed him looking and spared him a small smile.

The man cleared his throat. "I'm Reever Wenhamm, by the way…a lot of the guys in the department like you."

"They usually do," Maria chuckled. "I bring them coffee occasionally when they need it."

From the look on his face, Kanda gathered that that wasn't what he'd meant.

"Ah, General Maria Walker," came a silky voice behind them, "so lovely to see you again."

Kanda twisted in order to look behind his master. It was a man dressed smartly, not like the man that she'd spoken to on the train with that almost fond smile of hers, even after she'd said the man was an ally of the Earl, his brown hair slicked back and toothbrush mustache present on his lip. His uniform was unlike theirs and was a bold maroon with a crest at his throat and his breast.

Maria's face completely blanked of emotion, like moments before, but worse, like Kanda was looking at a carved statue; he didn't like it, she seemed almost…_unnatural._

She knelt suddenly, disregarding the man completely. "Darling, why don't you go along with Mr. Wenhamm and get some sleep?" Kanda was so unnerved by her general demeanor that he didn't even try to shake her off when she brought a hand to his cheek. He held her eyes for the longest time and then he gave one single nod.

She watched them until they rounded a corner and then she straightened back up again, a calm mask smoothing across her face.

The only thing she was acutely aware of was Mun settled on her shoulder, teeth bared in an unfriendly and wrathful way.

She didn't notice the door that was cracked and the dark eyes that watched her curiously.

"Follow me, please."

* * *

Lenalee Lee didn't remember what her life had been like with her parents, when the akuma had attacked and rendered them to ash, but she did remember her brother, and she remembered the look on his face when they'd ripped her from him.

_Accomodator of the Dark Boots,_ that was what they'd called her, and it had been months before she'd even heard her name again and even longer before she'd been treated anywhere close to human.

She shouldn't have even been awake, but she'd heard voices, the sound of Lvellie, the man of her _nightmares_, and a cold voice of a woman. She'd peeked out of the darkness, watching him walk past with a woman with a high ponytail and an exorcist uniform.

Intrigued, she couldn't help but sneak out of her room to follow after. Exorcists came and went, but she'd never _seen_ a woman before.

"If you were more cooperative, this would go much quicker," came Lvellie's smooth voice.

"Am I supposed to feel a shred of mercy towards the man that killed my son?" the woman replied archly, grey eyes like ice. "I could drop a building on you and I wouldn't feel a thing…I _would happily_ drop a building on you."

The members of CROW in their faceless uniforms shifted slightly.

"Are you threatening me, General Walker?"

General Walker bared her teeth and the strange golem at her side did the same, radiating pure contempt, if it was possible for it to do so. "You've got a brain, Inspector -_I hope_, though with that apathy, one has to wonder, but even _jellyfish_ have their uses- I'm sure you can figure it out."

She stood, fury rolling off her entire being. "I will be perfectly clear. I have not had any contact with Allen D. Campbell, _at all._ Your men removed my son from me without even permitting me to hold him. His transfer from Central was guarded by _your men_ and by _your clergy_. _You_ lost him, so you don't get to blame me for your shortcomings, and believe me, _there are many_. I have not looked for my son, I don't know where he is and I very dearly hope that he is dead so that your depraved organization never gets its hands on him." And then she swept furiously out of the room, and Lenalee, knowing Lvellie would be following at any moment, raced quickly back to her own room.

* * *

Mana dropped a book with an echoing thud. "Uncle?" His eyes widened in surprise, eyes jumping from his twin to Maria, who he'd only just been made aware of months ago; Nea was good at covering his tracks, but Mana was smart and figuring out his brother was sneaking off to spend time with an exorcist had initially stopped his heart.

Then his eyes dropped to where Maria was cupping her stomach. "Oh," he said, followed by, "wait…you're with child?"

Maria was barely eighteen -as was Nea, himself- and was a slight woman that he had a hard time imagining with a rounded stomach, child growing within.

"He's taking this well," Maria remarked with amusement.

"I'm kind of enjoying it," Nea leaned down to press a kiss to her shoulder through the material of her uniform.

The irony hit Mana more than anything else. His brother's skin was the Noah gray, a ringlet of stigmata around his brow, umber eyes impossibly soft as he looked on Maria, and her smile was much the same.

Mana couldn't believe that they'd been sneaking around the Black Order and the Earl for two years, really, he should've been surprised that Maria hadn't ended up pregnant sooner.

"We're going to get married before Allen comes," Maria added, her smile bright and Mana could see why Nea loved her so much.

"Allen?" Mana's mouth formed the name carefully.

"If it's a boy, we're naming him Allen," Nea said, completely shamelessly and so utterly in love.

"And if it's a girl?"

Maria's lips twisted. "We're still working out some names." She waved a hand. "That's not important. We're going to get married, and it would mean a lot to us if you would come."

Mana had known it would end badly as soon as he'd found out about their relationship, but the "Of course," couldn't be silenced; Nea was his brother and he loved him dearly, and wherever he went, Mana would follow.

Follow until he _fractured._

Mana opened his eyes to the dark and cold inside of his tent with the circus, trying not to think of the small boy the ringmaster had bought from a freakshow, with his arm wrinkled, red, and imbedded with a cross, hanging useless at his side, skin the color of Nea's and eyes and hair just like Maria.

Mana wouldn't get attached to this 'Red', he would find Nea again and everything would be fine and perfect and wonderful again.

(High above him sat a figure on a rooftop, a cigarette between his lips and long red hair tied back, his only company an over-large golden golem at his side.

"Mana Walker?" Cross Marian asked the golem. "Guess he really got fucked up after what happened to Nea."

The golem twitched in worry.

"But you're sure about the kid?" he asked it as though he was speaking with a man, not a sentient golem crafted by a Noah.

Timcanpy nodded.

"Allen D. Campbell…hm." Cross grinned around his cigarette. "Well, this is going to be interesting.")

* * *

Maria blinked at the heaping portions that had been set out before she'd even ordered breakfast. "Jeryy, how'd you know?"

The chef reached through the opening to grasp her hands, his eyes as hidden behind those sunglasses that he didn't need as the first day they'd met. "_Oh, honey_," he said, "I know you…and I made some special cake for you!"

Maria looked at it and had to stifle her amusement. "Eat shit, Lvellie," she read out, warmth rising in her chest. "Thanks, Jeryy…I really appreciate it."

"That is one evil man, honey," Jeryy told her seriously, "don't stay here any longer than you have to, all right?"

He leaned forward further to hug her tightly, but his words settled ice into her heart. "Jeryy…are they- are they…" Her throat closed, remembering the notes in the file on the Second Exorcist Project. "Are they _doing something…?"_

Jeryy's face softened and Maria tried not to break. She'd already been fractured into so many pieces because of the Order and its actions perverted in the name of the God they loved so much. Maria had never been religious, but joining the Order had made her a straight up atheist, and she so loved to bring up that fact in front of any clergy that found themselves in her presence. They didn't much like it, but, then again, Maria hadn't liked being restrained for months during her pregnancy and forced to give up her child.

("Are you still using that excuse?" a priest had asked her, disgust curling across his face. She presumed that was from the assumption that she hadn't been married in a Christian fashion and that her child was born out of wedlock. Allen might not've been conceived after their wedding, but he had had no shortage of love from his parents, that, at least, Maria _knew._

"Are you still being depraved human beings experimenting on children in the name of your God?" she replied with ice that burned.)

"That's a lot of food."

Maria pulled back from Jeryy with a blink, looking down on Kanda. "I'm surprised you found your way in here, darling. Didn't get lost?"

"I'm not you," Kanda rolled his eyes.

Maria's eyebrow twitched. _Damn brat._

"And who's this cute little sweetie?" Jeryy practically zeroed in on Kanda in a way that made him physically step back.

Maria laughed, dropping a hand to his head in a way that had him smacking it off. "This is my student, Kanda. This is Jeryy, he's the head chef of the European Branch."

Jeryy saluted.

"Whip him up something, will you?" Maria asked Jeryy before considering Kanda thoughtfully, "…hm, maybe something Japanese?"

"Right-o!"

And with that said, Maria wheeled her massive cart of food over to a table and began to chow down.

The whispers followed her no matter where went and Maria had never cared for them very much, but it was worse in the European Branch than it was in the Asian Branch. It hadn't been like that before, but the Inspector's people made it worse.

If Kanda noticed her white knuckles when he sat down opposite her, he didn't comment on it, which Maria appreciated.

She'd barely slept last night, dreaming about babies with malformed right arms drowning in pools of their own blood.

Her stomach roiled again at the thought.

The Order was toxic and she _hated_ it so much. She couldn't hate Bak, though, or Marie, or Klaud, or Froi, or…_or…_

Maria sighed tiredly into her soup and Muncanpy kept his tail wrapped around her wrist while he chowed down on a sandwich.

"Ready to learn how to properly use a sword, kid?" she asked instead.

"I _can_ use a sword," Kanda grumbled under his breath.

"Anyone can use a sword as long as they know which end to stab people with," Maria snorted. "You are going to learn how to_ properly_ use one, there's a difference."

Kanda didn't agree with her.

* * *

Tyki was still out of sorts after meeting that woman, Colette. There was something about her…something _unnerving_ and something painfully _familiar,_ like looking in the mirror or looking at Sheril, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

It was important, he was sure of it, a flash of resemblance to something he remembered seeing as a child…poking his head into places he shouldn't have been.

He remembered the anger on his father's face, more viscerally than anything else.

Colette had been a curious one, with a weariness and a sadness that seemed to cling to her, clear in every movement she made. She'd only seemed to come alive a bit when that boy had called out to her.

"_Master?"_

That single word had lightened her somber aura enough that at was noticeable and Tyki's eyes had followed her back to the boy in the Order uniform -a child not even Road's age when she looked her usual (though it was possibly close to the appearance she wore when with his brother and sister-in-law), and that was the part that hit him the most, that the Order was using literal children in this war- and he had to wonder how young she'd been when she'd started to wear such a look.

Tyki sighed. He'd have time to deal with the enigma that was Colette at a later date.

* * *

Lenalee watched them from behind a pillar, interest piqued. General Walker was a relentless teacher, she'd learned while watching the spar. It was a miracle that her student hadn't collapsed yet.

The boy, Kanda, he looked completely exhausted, drenched in sweat and covered in bruises, holding onto a training sword, but his master hadn't even broken a sweat. Her brown hair had been pulled up into a bun at the top of her head and she was wearing a training uniform to match her student's. There were slight scars on her arms where she'd been cut before, years old, but Lenalee couldn't help but think there were ones on her chest that were _worse._

"You're doing very well," General Walker said, her training sword held in front of herself, one hand held behind her back.

"Shut up," Kanda growled, making her smile.

"Could be better," she added, just to goad him, and he lurched forward. She sidestepped, using her foot to trip him so he crashed into the ground.

And then he was pulling himself up and attacking again. He'd improved slightly since they'd started, just after breakfast and it was almost lunch now. Lenalee knew they were going to come to drag her away soon but she couldn't help but wish for a master like General Walker, someone who was tough and unafraid to speak what she thought, who smiled and said 'darling' with so much warmth even if her student disregarded it mostly.

"Again!"

Kanda struck and his master blocked with ease.

"Again!"

Lenalee heard the sound of footsteps and a spike of terror overtook her at the thought of Lvellie, so she took off, heading for the cafeteria, hoping to hide out there before the men from Central found her again.

She didn't notice the oversized golem sitting on the sidelines, turning almost completely to watch her as she left, before returning its attention to the sparring match before it.

* * *

"So, what's the deal with that general and Central?"

Reever wasn't really expecting an answer, but the Section Leader looked up in surprise. "Ah, I forgot, you're new, you haven't heard the story about Maria Walker."

That sounded a bit ominous, if Reever was being perfectly honest. "Is this a story I'm going to get in trouble with for hearing?"

"Nah," the Section Leader waved him off, "most people know it, and Maria prefers not to have to tell it over and over again. She says it's like reliving her trauma."

That sounded _worse._

"You probably noticed that Maria has a wedding band."

Reever nodded.

"Well, Maria was on an extended assignment several years back and got married while she was away from the Order. She got married, with child, and widowed all within the span of a month when she was eighteen."

Reever's eyes widened in surprise. That sounded _awful._

"She actually got pregnant before she got married," Section Leader shrugged his shoulders, "the church doesn't like her too much for that, and they don't really recognize the marriage because she wouldn't tell them her husband's name…they locked her up and experimented with shoving Innocence into her unborn child."

Reever's mouth dropped open at that, his heart dropping into his stomach. "They did _what?"_

"Yeah, pretty terrible, right? They wouldn't even let her hold her kid after he was born, just shipped him off and then lost him in an akuma attack, no surprise she's so bitter about it."

Losing a husband and then a son…Reever couldn't _imagine_ it. He almost asked how she could bear working for the organization that had cost her so much but he had to stop himself when he realized that she didn't really have a choice. She was an exorcist -a powerful one, too, if she was a general at her age- and the Order always had a shortage of exorcists.

What a _terrible_ situation.

Reever was still thinking about it later when he heard a "Quit squirming."

"You're pulling _too hard!"_

"Don't be such a weakling, Yu."

He looked over to the training area to see Maria sitting on the edge with Kanda standing in front of her, scowling as she combed his hair back, a faint smile on her lips.

"How tight you want this, darling?" she asked, smoothing her fingers through, separating his forelocks so that they hung free, framing the sides of his face.

"Tight enough," Kanda complained and her fingers took a ribbon, winding it around the tail that she'd formed, looping it several times before tying it off.

"All right, does that work?"

He reached to feel, giving an experimental tug just to be sure, before nodding approvingly, making his master laugh in a way that actually reached her eyes.

She'd seemed solemn -and angry when Lvellie had shown up- the previous night and Reever had no doubt that the story about her was true…but in a moment like that, she did seem almost like a mom to her bad-tempered student.

He wondered if it hurt her not to know her own son's fate.

* * *

Tyki hummed softly to himself as he entered the church, looking around with disinterest. Luckily for him, there didn't seem to be any foot traffic that day. That was good. It was easier to kill and interrogate a priest when there was no one around.

His back was to Tyki as he stepped silently forward, fiddling with the bible on the pedestal before checking the candles some churchgoers had lighted before leaving.

"Excuse me," Tyki said smoothly, "but you wouldn't happen to be Father Clark Ogden?"

The man turned around in surprise, probably not expecting someone to approach in such silence, nor being so well-dressed that he didn't quite fit into the crowd around the church.

"Yes, can I help you, young man?"

Tyki took off his top hat and delighted in how the color leeched from the Father's skin at how Tyki's own turned ashen and grey, the stigmata appearing across his brow.

"Hello." Tyki bared his teeth in a terrifying grin that was almost sharp. "Six years ago you married a Nea Campbell and a Maria Walker…I'd like to know about them." He moved fast and the Father didn't stand a chance before there was a hand sunk through his chest, wrapping around his heart, squeezing slightly to let him know where exactly he stood.

"You're going to tell me everything about them," Tyki continued with that same terrifying smile. "That is…_if you don't want to die."_

They were empty words, of course, the Father was going to die regardless, but humans had a tendency to do what you wanted when given the proper incentive.

So, Father Clark Ogden opened his mouth and told Tyki everything.

* * *

**AN: As always: PLEASE REVIEW!**

**There's some interesting stuff coming up with certain characters' families ;)**


	5. Likeness

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter Five: Likeness**

**AN: Tyki and Maria are so chaotic together and I love them so much; they've got dumb sibling vibes**

* * *

Sheril Kamelot hadn't touched his father's things, just packaged them up after his funeral and that had been months ago, right before Tyki had left. He and their father had never gotten on particularly well, neither did Sheril, really, but Tyki was Sheril's half-brother and half-wanted. Their father had done little more than give him a home and Tyki had responded in kind, running off as soon as he could get away with it.

But Sheril could only avoid the elephant in the room for so long, so he'd heaved a heavy sigh and opened the door and began to sift through the boxes.

He'd made it through most of them when he came across something peculiar.

It was a file with a photograph clipped to it of a woman, slight with a deadly grin, dark eyes and hair. Sheril frowned; he'd never that picture before. He flipped open the file.

There was a name to go with the pretty face, Isabel Archer, but Sheril found he was more interested in the birth certificate that followed. Colette Archer was the name there with Isabel Archer being listed as mother and Markus Kamelot, Sheril's father, being listed as the father.

Sheril was no fool, he knew what kind of man his father had been. Tyki was proof of his father's infidelities, though, thankfully, Sheril's mother had been long dead by the time Markus Kamelot had dragged a confused and frightened Tyki back home with him, still calling for his mother. But this girl, Colette, she was Sheril's age…a few weeks off from him, but that was what hurt more, the fact that so soon after he'd gotten Sheril's mother pregnant, he'd gone off and impregnated some woman, just because he could.

Sheril had to take in a calming breath before continuing on. There was a death certificate almost immediately following the birth certificate. It looked like Isabel died from complications during the birth and her daughter was subsequently placed in an orphanage…who lost track of her until…

There was a new picture of a girl in her teens, brown hair pulled back and eyes clear and grey -more like their father in appearance than Sheril or Tyki, who both resembled their mothers-, wearing a dark uniform with a silver cross on it. Then her name was listed as 'Maria Walker'.

Maria Walker…his _sister_…Sheril wondered what kind of person she was, if she was the type of person who would enjoy some long-lost relative coming along and claiming to be her brother. Even without even knowing her, Sheril got the feeling that she'd never had much of a family to begin with.

Sheril had practically lost one sibling already for reasons he didn't even understand, only to find out he'd had another, one who was practically his twin in age…he didn't know quite how to deal with that…but he did want to find this Maria Walker, something he would only later realize was a goal that he'd shared with his brother.

* * *

Tyki's glove was painted with the Father's blood from how he'd squeezed his heart until it crushed under his hand.

"_She had grey eyes and brown hair, she didn't look all that special, just that she chose to get married in a strange uniform…her husband looked like you, that's all I know...she was beginning to show that she was with child…"_

The words echoed in Tyki's skull long after the body had fallen to the ground, and he thought of the woman, Colette. She'd been smart not to reveal her name then, but he knew it now.

No wonder she'd known so much about the Noah family, she'd _married into it!_ Nea must've told her a great deal about the members of his awakened family. She was the one who'd said he'd looked like Musica, which, of course she would know, being _married_ to him.

But the thing that hit him the most was the last thing the Father had revealed, about her being pregnant. It was laughable, the idea of a Noah and an Exorcist actually falling in love and creating a child together…Tyki had never heard of it happening before; Exorcists and Noah tended to avoid one another if they knew of each other at all.

The idea…it seemed so _impossible._

And clearly, she didn't have the child anymore, it had to have been years since she'd given birth, and it couldn't have been that child that called her 'Master', though she had been much softer with him, there were no physically similarities between him and Maria or Nea. He was just the student to a master who knew everything Tyki needed to.

Tyki sighed, putting on a fresh pair of gloves. What he really needed was a smoke, preferably far enough that no one would question him about the murder he'd just committed, but close enough to still hear the startled screams.

* * *

Maria just needed to _fucking breathe,_ okay? It was the middle of the night when she'd awoken in the midst of a panic attack. She couldn't do it, she couldn't take it. It was all she could do to throw on Nea's coat, shove her feet into boots and fall through a Gate and come out in small town in England, stumbling into an abandoned alley to collapse onto her side.

"I'm fine," she rasped out, "I'm fine, I'm fine, _I'm fine…"_

She didn't even know where this panic had come from, it just came out of nowhere; this is what it must've felt like to be hunted. Maria couldn't explain it, no one could get quite so panicked from simple dreams, could they?

At this rate, Maria was going to lose enough oxygen that she was going to pass out.

"_Take a deep breath_," Nea's voice advised and Maria's eyes shifted towards Mun, playing another recording of her husband. She wished his voice didn't calm her as well as it did, but that was neither here nor there. But still, it was a struggle.

A struggle to calm her breathing. A struggle to remember where she was. A struggle to remember who she was.

"Well…this is…surprising," came a sudden voice, vaguely startled and despite how much her chest hurt, Maria looked up to see Joyd in his fashionable clothing, looking painfully like Nea.

That did not help.

"Joyd," she managed to rasp out, and that was when it seemed to register that she was having trouble breathing.

She must've looked quite a state; hair falling haphazardly, one hand clenched to the ground and shaking hard, sinking into the coat that was too large for her, over where her heart was beating rapidly in her chest.

If it had been someone in the Order, some clergyman -and oh, how Maria had offended each and _every _one of them-, they would've let her struggle until she passed out, but it was perhaps more telling when the Noah were far kinder than the organization Maria had found herself a part of.

"Are you all right?" She could hear the concern.

That didn't help either.

"Panic attack," she forced out, "Gimme a- mo'—" Air hissed through her teeth and Joyd knelt down, reaching out to touch her shoulders, only for Maria to flinch back hard. He retracted.

"Put your head between your legs," he offered before moving slowly to assist her to do so. "That helps sometimes."

It sounded like he was speaking from experience.

Maria breathed in and out, feeling like her heart was going to leap out of her chest, like her lungs were burning, like the veins in her skull were constricting. Moments passed like hours before Maria finally regained her calm, her breathing slowing, and she leaned back to slide against the side of the alley, utterly exhausted.

She didn't comment on the Noah taking up residence beside her, waiting patiently, while Muncanpy perched on her knee in concern.

"What's your name?" she asked with an exhausted air.

Joyd seemed surprised by the question. She already knew his Noah name…what harm would it be to tell his somewhat sister-in-law his name?

_A lot of harm_, he thought.

"Tyki Mikk," he told her, holding out a hand to her.

She took it weakly. "Maria Walker," she returned.

"Oh, I know," Tyki said before he could help himself.

Maria looked to him sharply and in the light from the nearby lamps cast flickering shadows across her face. Her eyes were almost silver and made him think of his father's behind his severe spectacles. There were similarities between the two, he couldn't deny…the brown hair, the grey eyes…that expression she'd just given him had been a patented Markus Kamelot look.

"The Earl looking for me, then?" she asked tiredly. The church she'd been married in was nearby -if she was reading those street names right- and he must've gone there and probably killed the Father for good measure; that sounded like Noah.

"He just wants answers, he thinks you have them," Tyki offered simply and Maria sighed heavily, pressing a hand over her eyes. He didn't ask her about the most pertinent detail that the Father had revealed; that Maria had been pregnant. He wanted to, of course, but he didn't; she looked like she was having enough of a terrible day to add to it. Tyki might kill people, but at least he wasn't an _ass._

"Answers?" Maria blinked and stared. "I thought he wanted me dead." That would've been simpler.

"Why would he want you dead?" Now Tyki was flummoxed as well.

Well, now they were both cycling the drain to the town of Confusion where Miscommunication reigned supreme.

"That's generally how it goes," Maria frowned. "Besides, my husband killed most of you…don't you want _revenge_ for that?"

"_Oh_." Tyki blinked. "I don't really remember when that happened…to the last Joyd, I mean."

"You don't remember your previous incarnation? N—" Maria caught herself with a flinch. "My husband could remember all his previous incarnations." She considered Tyki. "It must've been too traumatic…sorry."

Tyki shrugged. "Don't really remember it, but thanks anyways."

He was lying. He remembered a blooming agony and looking down at a hand to see it covered in black blood and feeling as though he'd been ripped apart. But Tyki thought it best not to tell her that.

They both sat in companionable silence for the longest time.

"I don't suppose I could convince you to give me a head-start?" she asked finally.

Tyki weighed his options…how far could she get on her own? "Yeah, all right, ten minutes head start." Which would've been utterly ridiculous to agree to, because there were no trains running; she'd have nowhere to go.

"You might regret that," Maria warned, a slow, devilish smile spreading across her face and Tyki could see how a Noah had fallen for an Exorcist.

Then the ground beneath her glowed with a brilliant white light. Tyki leapt back instantly before recognizing the shard of light bearing a number. A _gate?_ How did she have access to the_ Ark?_

She waved her fingers before sinking right through, the Gate shattering behind her, leaving Tyki in the darkness, completely flummoxed and startled.

He wouldn't tell the Earl about her pregnancy, not yet, but the Ark was fair game.

* * *

"Let's not go wandering off again for a while," Maria told Mun who bobbed in agreement. She kicked off her boots and shook off Nea's coat, trying not to think, but it was hard work.

The familiar pain in her eyes returned, and she could feel whatever it was stabbing out of them, and she gritted her teeth together to keep from crying out in pain. It hurt to remember, it hurt to forget, and, personally, Maria was really tired of hurting.

Remember…_remember…_

She reached a hand up to her eyes and felt something that shouldn't even be there. Soft, like feathers, not the kind of thing that one would associate with stabbing pain in the eyes.

Maria, actually, had been hoping to dig something more concrete out of her eyes, like knives, for instance.

The feathers were as slippery as they were painful and Maria ground her teeth as she gave a sharp tug, one finally coming free with a whisper in her ear that made her skin crawl _"It can't be helped, my dear, you brought an abomination into the world, now I must remove it."_

Maria teetered over and passed out.

It could've been minutes or hours later when she awoke, but it was still dark outside, and the feather was still clutched tightly in her hand.

_Abomination_. Maria had never heard that word applied to her son, and she really didn't care for it, nor the voice she could still hear echoing in her ear. She shuddered hard, dropping a hand to her stomach where she'd felt Allen kick so long ago and she held back the tears that threatened to fall once more.

"Pull yourself together, Maria," she muttered. "You've got bigger problems."

That Noah, Tyki Mikk, he knew her name now, and that was going to cause some problems. He seemed…complicated and, for the most part, incredibly confused about her, which, Maria supposed, was fair. After all, she had married Musica despite being an Exorcist.

Desperate times had called for desperate measures. Tyki Mikk would've outrun her and overtaken her, and probably dragged her back to the Earl (she was honestly more surprised about him wanting answers and not wanting to kill her), otherwise, Maria wouldn't have used the Ark; she really hated people knowing all the cards she had up her sleeve, but, she supposed, better the Earl than the Order. (The irony, of which, did not escape her)

Well, Maria was _fucked._

She might want to invest in testing if maintaining the activation of her innocence at all hours of the day was something she was actually capable of…

She looked down at the feather. It was pure white and felt faintly warm in her hand. It was more unnerving than anything else; it wasn't everyday that Maria pulled fucking feathers out of her eyeballs.

She wished stranger things had happened to her; strange was just about typical for Exorcists, they dealt in weird and unnatural.

But Hevlaska might know…the ethereal Keeper of the Cube might be able to give her a better idea of what it was made of so she could figure out who was behind the blocks on her memory.

Her eyes started to sting again with pain so she shook that thought off, climbing to her feet and brushing herself off and opening the door to make her way down the circular stairs until she reached the lift that Exorcists took to get to Hevlaska, to hand over collected Innocence.

She pressed the button to take it lower and the lift gave a low whirring sound before dropping slowly into the darkness below.

Maria never really liked coming down there, mostly because of the Great Generals. They were five shadowed figures that were the direct superiors to the Generals, though Maria preferred to interact with them as little as possible, like most people that worked for the Order. She'd never even seen their faces, which was disconcerting enough. They never seemed to move from the five chairs they were sitting in, overlooking Hevlaska, but the rumor was that those figures were actually puppets controlled by the real generals in Central.

…it was the most ridiculous thing Maria had ever heard, that was certain. But the chairs weren't illuminated currently, so maybe it was true.

"Maria," came a deep, echoing voice, "its been so…_long_ since you've…been to see me." Hevlaska had a slow way in which she spoke that Maria had found far more reassuring as a child.

"Hello," Maria said simply. "I have something I'd like you to look at."

"Innocence?" Hevlaska queried, her great, luminescent, and monstrous form, bringing her massive head closer.

"Not sure," Maria held out the feather to her and Hevlaska brought up one of the many tendrils she used to interact with the world around her in the absence of hands. "I hoped you could tell me."

It glowed brightly with Hevlaska's touch. "I sense…_innocence,"_ she breathed in astonishment. "But not like…the innocence within me…it feels…_sentient."_

"Sentient?" Maria couldn't help but be startled. "I wasn't aware that Innocence could be sentient." Sure, Innocence could be hidden within a living thing and then affect it from the inside, but it couldn't be sentient by itself…at least, not as far as Maria knew.

"I had never seen…such a thing," Hevlaska admitted and they both stared as the feather shattered in her very light grip. "That's interesting."

"If you say so," Maria sighed. "Thanks, Hevlaska."

"Of course, Maria."

Maria saluted before taking the lift back up and frowning all the way back to her room. So…whatever was in her eyes was made of Innocence, that was…_weird_. It was probably a bad sign, but at least it wasn't Dark Matter, though, at this point, Maria wasn't entirely sure if that was worse than having feathers made of Innocence in her eyes.

She was so engrossed in her thoughts that she almost walked into the child that was standing outside her bedroom.

"Yu," she yawned widely, "shouldn't you be asleep?"

Kanda rubbed at his eyes, looking every bit as tired as he probably was, but there was probably a reason he was standing outside her door and not in his own room. He gave her no answers, probably too tired to do so.

"All right, then," Maria muttered, dropping a hand onto the top of his head. "Want some company tonight?"

She took the answer to be yes, since he shook off her hand and just headed into her room to flop down onto to bed.

Maria had to stifle her amusement at that. Clearly, she was raising her student to communicate effectively even when completely exhausted.

"Want to talk about it?" she asked, shutting the door behind them, despite knowing what the answer was going to be.

"No," he grumbled into the pillow.

"All right, then," Maria said with a shrug. "get some sleep, darling."

He might've closed his eyes, but Kanda didn't even come close to drifting off until Maria lay down beside him, the bed creaking slightly, and began to hum that lullaby that she loved so much.

It was the last thing Kanda heard before the darkness took him.

* * *

Maria was nearly outmatched, and that was completely and utterly exhausting. The boy, at least, appeared to be the same, mopping his grey-skinned brow over where the stigmata ringed his head, but he had paused to stare at Maria, singing a soft tune that made the air around her glow brightly and then solidify into a deadly-looking chain with pendulums at the end.

He had no way of knowing that the chain itself was a near-replica of her old master's technique.

But he lowered the broadsword slightly in surprise. Had she made that from _her voice_? Was that the power of her Innocence?

Nea Campbell was thrown and in awe; he'd never met an Exorcist that could use _music_ as a _weapon._

Her chains shot towards him, wrapping around the broadsword, but Nea was stronger and he used her power against her, swinging her bodily into a wall. She yelled in pain as she crumpled to the ground and Nea was on her, his broadsword at her throat.

"Don't move," he warned, though it was hardly terrifying to be threatened by a fifteen year old.

She glared up at him, her teeth gritted together, but his attention drifted down from the furious grey eyes to what looked like a tattoo on her throat, like music notes painted across her skin.

"Your Innocence…you can make things from music?"

"What of it?" she growled.

Nea shrugged. "It's pretty cool, that's all."

That made her blink in surprise.

"I'm the Noah's Musician, Nea," he offered helpfully, perhaps a bit too helpfully.

"Maria," she returned cautiously.

Her eyes were a pretty shade of grey, he realized, and her brown hair had long since lost its tie, pooling around her like a halo. Nea tried not to get distracted.

Apparently, Nea had taken too long, because she brought her head up to butt his forehead rather painfully, making him yelp and rear his head back, giving her the opportunity to throw his broadsword off her, bringing her legs up to kick him solidly in the chest.

Nea was still wheezing long after she'd gone.

"Maria, huh?" he muttered to himself with a grin, rubbing at his head where a bruise was sure to form.

* * *

Kanda awoke slowly to feverish murmuring.

"England is out for sure," Maria was muttering to Mun, a map spread on the floor in front of her, twirling a pen in her grip. She made a mark on the map. "And Asia…Asia is out too." She gave an involuntary shudder and Kanda remembered how tense she'd been traveling through Asia; she hadn't stopped twisting her wedding band around her finger the entire time they were in the country.

"Italy, maybe? There's been some strange rumors about Innocence down there…"

"Wazzgoing on?" Kanda asked with a wide yawn, rubbing at his eyes.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Maria said without looking up from her map. "We're leaving HQ after breakfast, so best eat your fill."

"Why? Where're we going?" They hadn't left HQ in three months, not since Maria had started training him in how to use Mugen, and, if Kanda was being perfectly honest, he'd been starting to feel a bit confined.

Maria hummed to herself. "Rome, I'm thinking…but not too fast, then people might think we're up to something…"

Kanda knew his master was paranoid, but after being an Exorcist for so long, he figured that she had a right to be, but this…she almost seemed _delirious._

No, that wasn't right…

"Is it because of that guy on the train?" he asked, remembering what she'd said back then.

"_What kinda name is Joyd?" _

_"The kind that you must never speak of, understand?"_

"Tyki Mikk." Maria wrinkled her nose. "By now he's probably reported back to the Earl that he's found me, and lost me." She allowed herself a snort of amusement. "Good thing they don't have a way to track me yet or I'd really be in trouble."

Kanda was only half following what Maria was saying. "_Huh?"_

"Don't worry about it," she waved off his confusion.

"Why's the Earl after you?" he asked, flummoxed.

"_Never you mind_," she sang, the pitch of her voice increasing enough that it was almost painful. "I'm still not entirely sure he's worse than Central, but I'd rather not find out, either way."

Kanda was still lost.

"Besides, I've picked up an assignment for the both of us," Maria continued, skating completely over the whole 'the Earl's after me and I don't want him to get me' issue that she was refusing to elaborate on and Kanda actually wished she would. "We'll be heading to Rome, Italy. The finders there believe they've found some Innocence on the outskirts of the city."

"You said sometimes they get it wrong," Kanda frowned.

"Sometimes," Maria agreed. "Sometimes a rumor is just a rumor, but we still go and check them out in case they turn out to be true. Though, finders tend to be good at spotting when something's Innocence or not…but sometimes they're completely off the mark; it's a toss-up, really."

"_Great,"_ Kanda drawled out as she folded the map back up and stuck it into her coat pocket.

"Time to get up, darling," she said, patting the top of his head, which made him bat her hand away. "Time and tide wait for no woman."

Kanda was pretty sure that wasn't how the saying went, but he didn't question it.

* * *

**AN: Got some fun stuff coming up ;)**

**As always: Please review!**


	6. Chasing a Story

**Path Built On Graves: Chapter Six: Chasing a Story**

**AN: Writing Bby!Kanda is the best, but one day soon we'll get back to the Noah.**

* * *

Kanda was getting pretty good at reading his master's moods and general state of being, and a sure sign that something was wrong was when she kept twisting her wedding ring, like she was now.

Maria seemed more tired these last few days, an exhaustion that had nothing to do with all the traveling they'd been doing. Her eyes were fixed out of the window as trees flew by. Mun was resting on her lap, a bit enlarged, which he usually saved for sleeping, seeming to almost preen under her hand. Mun was very much like a cat, Kanda had come to realize.

"What exactly do Finders _do?"_ he asked suddenly, drawing her out of her thoughts to turn her attention back to him.

"Ruin twelve-year-olds' lives," Maria muttered, rubbing her eyes and Kanda remembered the story about how she'd become an exorcist in the first place, after Finders had discovered her talent. "No, what they do is travel the world, looking into anything unusual, rumors of ghosts, mysterious deaths, disappearances, those kinds of things. Most of what they find is just rumors, but sometimes they find something that might be Innocence, which is when Exorcists get called in."

"But there aren't a lot of Exorcists, right?" Kanda probed. The only ones he'd seen in the European Branch had been a woman that a passed through with a facial scar and rough laugh when Maria offered to steal her whip with a grin on her lips, and that small girl that had always been hiding from the man with the short moustache that Maria didn't like, Lvellie.

Maria shook her head. "Exorcists don't tend to last very long," she admitted, "some get lucky, others don't." A grim look morphed onto her face. "My former master, General Yeegar, has been an Exorcist for probably the longest time and is probably the oldest of the bunch, I'll admit, but be became an Exorcist later in life, not like we did." Her mouth twisted; she didn't like talking about her old master.

"Sometimes," she continued, "Exorcists get caught and surrounded by Akuma when they least expect it…not everyone is good at keeping themselves out of trouble."

"_You're_ not," Kanda muttered under his breath, causing a smile from her then.

"Well, it doesn't matter if I get into trouble more as long as I'm the one that comes out on top," Maria winked and Kanda rolled his eyes.

"What's the story with this mission?" he asked.

"Supposedly there's Innocence involved in an arena in the outskirts of Rome, but the Finders that discovered it lost contact with HQ rather soon after making contact…" Maria didn't seem too worried, but that was probably a personal bias. Kanda knew there were Finders she liked; he'd seen her talking with the one named Toma on more than one occasion. But there weren't enough to offset how much she disliked them.

"They were investigating a rumor or a ghost, then?"

"More like a story," Maria admitted, prodding at Mun, not that he seemed to mind, reaching down to pull out the briefing folder they'd been given, the story written out there like it had been dictated by a storyteller, "More than one thousand years ago, the Emperor who united Italy sired a beautiful daughter named Sandra. When she reached the age of sixteen, word of her incredible beauty spread throughout the land, and men from as far away as Greece and the Orient crossed both sea and mountain to ask for her hand in marriage. However, the princess wouldn't accept any proposal, no matter how great her suitor. To each of them she said "I will marry the strongest man in this world." The princess asked a swordsman in her father's employ by the name of Vittorio to fight her suitors. All of the mightiest men had assembled, and fought for many hours, but not one fell. It is said that when the princess fell ill and died, even to this day the battle continues."

"People _still_ fighting for a thousand years over a dead princess?" Kanda asked dubiously and Maria could understand the confusion.

"Probably not, more likely it's just an embellishment to an old story, and it's probably likely that the suitors all died rather early on into the challenge," Maria admitted. "They were going against an accomplished swordsman…but if he possessed Innocence that allowed him to stay alive and keep fighting all these millennia later, it could be that he found himself fighting Akuma that were drawn to it." She gave a careless shrug. "Hard to tell without going there first."

The thing that really got Maria was that it was an old story, a very old story, probably retold over and over again for an age…if the Vittorio in the story was real…could the Innocence have truly kept him alive all these years? Maria had never heard of an Innocence that could keep someone alive that long.

"I guess we'll find out in about—" Maria pulled an old pocket watch from her pocket that Kanda had seen her fiddle with from time to time. It was a beautiful piece, he thought it was safe to say, with music notes carefully carved into it. "—an hour, if the train is on time."

Kanda groaned under his breath and Maria spared him a smile. "Don't worry, darling, we'll be there before you know it."

Kanda doubted that.

Maria hummed a faint tune that he wasn't familiar with, holding out her hands, the air above them glowing faintly until twin pistols dropped into her palms. She weighed them carefully, examining them with a sort of disinterest. She didn't tend to use her Innocence much, Kanda had come to notice that over the months he had been her student. She'd make a sword to spar with him and then it would be gone during the break, only to return when they needed to spar again. "It's a waste of energy," she'd said to him once, "to keep it activated when you don't need it to be."

Now, Maria winked at him. "Just in case," she said.

* * *

The marketplace was bustling with people and normally Maria didn't mind that, she'd been to more than her fair share of marketplaces, but this one was packed with such a high number of men that Maria couldn't help but automatically stiffen.

Maria didn't have a good track record with being surrounded by men, but that was almost the entirety of the Order. Klaud Nine was the only other female Exorcist she had met -though it was very telling that the only two in the Order were Generals- and they both disliked the blatant misogyny. Though, Klaud hadn't been literally locked up and experimented on. _Lucky her._

Kanda gave her an odd look, like he was curious but also didn't want to come off as too concerned, and, in the end, Maria decided to not throw him a bone, scowling instead at a bunch of large men that had knocked down a boy and barked at him to watch where he was going.

Maria thought there was an awful lot of guns in hand in a marketplace, but she'd never been to Rome before.

There were two men with rifles arguing loudly and Maria was starting to wonder if one of the guns was going to go off.

"Why are they trying to start a fight?" Kanda asked, maybe a little too loudly and a voice spoke up from behind.

"I wish the two of them would just shoot each other."

Maria and Kanda turned as one, Maria's eyes narrowing. This man was taller and larger than the rest with an eyepatch over his left eye, a scar that sliced through the eye visible underneath.

"We're bounty hunters," the man explained, being more open about information than most generally were. "We're here to recover the Sardinis' kidnapped daughter."

"Kidnapped daughter?" Maria arched an eyebrow.

"You don't know?" the man asked in surprise and Maria's eyes flicked briefly towards Kanda.

"We're just passing through," Maria said and the man's attention shifted between Kanda -who couldn't have looked more Japanese if he tried- and Maria -who was probably Northern European- and trying to figure out how two people such as themselves were traveling together; not everyone knew what the symbol of the Black Order meant, which was both a blessing and a curse.

"Three days ago, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Sardini Family, Claudia, was kidnapped." He pointed to the missing poster on a nearby wall. There was a black and white photo of a young girl with wide eyes and expertly styled hair that probably wasn't her idea. "The man who kidnapped her called himself Vittorio."

Maria arched an eyebrow once again. What were the chances that there was some guy roaming around using the name of a millennium-old gladiator who wasn't the actual gladiator in possession of an Innocence-imbued sword? Maria thought it was rather slim.

Hooves clicked against the road and a shout rang out from the messenger atop the horse that barreled into view. "Viscount Paretti has handed down an order on behalf of the Sardini Family! All those wishing to claim the bounty are to assemble at once!"

Maria grabbed Kanda's shoulder, pulling him out of the way of some men that apparently thought it best to rush, just barely keeping him from getting knocked off his feet. A good portion of the people around them were all heading in that same direction, including the bounty hunter that had been talking with them.

"We're going to follow them," she told Kanda.

"We're not bounty hunters," Kanda pointed out and Maria's lips twisted in amusement.

"A good way to find out what's going on in a place you know nothing about is to _ask questions,"_ Maria said. "And I'm very interested in speaking with this missing girl's father."

Kanda, it seemed, was attempting to absorb as much information as possible, which was fair, since this was technically his first mission -killing all those Akuma on the way to European Headquarters didn't count-, at least he was learning things that were going to be helpful to him in the long run. Maria despised the Black Order, but she'd rather Kanda learn this now than end up caught off-guard in the future and end up dead.

The kid was starting to really grow on her and Maria hated seeing those white coffins.

They followed at the back of the crowd, walking for what seemed for a long time until they came to a large estate. Predictably, Maria went right for the food and Kanda followed her in a bit of exasperation, but he did remember the literal piles of food she'd eat at every meal when they were at HQ. He got the feeling that on assignment she didn't actually get to eat much, which was why she had to make up for it when back at HQ.

Being a Parasitic-type didn't sound like fun and Kanda was starting to feel very glad that his Innocence was Equipment-type.

"Have some potatoes, darling, I don't want you passing out if this takes too long." Maria handed Kanda a plate and Kanda sighed very loudly, before taking it from her as everyone's attention was drawn to balcony overlooking the courtyard.

There was a well-dressed man in a uniform and dark hair and then a portly man with a thick mustache following behind him, a bit shorter and a bit more tired; Maria assumed the latter was the father.

"My friends, I ask that you stop for a moment and listen to me," the man in uniform said and Maria presumed he was the Viscount Paretti that had been mentioned before. "As you likely know, the Lady Claudia of the Sardini Family had been kidnapped by a bandit calling himself Vittorio. This matter is deeply troubling to Mr. Sardini."

Maria's eyes flicked towards Mr. Sardini who had made no moves at all to speak up.

"As a representative of the honorable Paretti family, I swear to you all that whoever recovers my beloved fiancée will have a share of my property!"_ Paretti_…now where had Maria heard of that family before?

"Well, that's a good way to get them out for blood," Maria muttered to herself and Kanda frowned at her but she was able to read it was one of his 'I don't understand' scowls. "What is it?"

"What's a fiancée?" he asked her bluntly and Maria smiled faintly. It was such a simple question and it was so easy to forget that there were a lot of things about the world that Kanda didn't understand that were so obvious to everyone else.

"You remember when we talked about people being married, being husband and wife?" she asked carefully. It was always a tough topic for her; marriage. Not that she didn't like being married, she had, she _definitely_ had, and she could still remember Nea's vows to her:

"_Loving you has made me a better man, a better person, and I know one thing for sure; I'll never stop loving you. Even when we didn't even like each other, you were the most exciting, most thrilling part of my life. There are times when you drive me completely insane, and there are times where I can't help but stare at you and wonder how I got so lucky, and I want to wake up beside you every day for the rest of my life."_

But her marriage had ended painfully and bloodily.

"Like Tui and Edgar," Kanda nodded and Maria smiled thinly.

"Like Tui and Edgar," she agreed, "before you become husband and wife, you're each other's fiancée."

Kanda looked back at the man talking trying to make sense of it. "That man is very old," he noted.

"He is," Maria could see where this was going.

"Isn't the missing girl sixteen?"

"She is," Maria nodded.

"If he's so old, why's he marrying a kid?"

"Asking the real questions, kid," Maria snorted, sparing him a smile. "Sometimes fathers…I don't know, set up their daughters with older men if they're offered money or land…it's an old-fashioned notion for the upper-class."

The Campbell family was long gone now -Maria had checked- and she'd known that Nea and Mana's mother, Katerina had always been against betrothals for her sons, something she'd had multiple fights with her brother Cyrus about, which probably had more to do with _their_ parents trying to betroth her, leading to her running away at the tender age to sixteen and almost immediately marrying a pianist with a devilish smile.

Maria had liked hearing that story and listening to how Nea talked about the father he never got to meet; a musical rival had decided to end his life before he even knew that his wife was pregnant. By rights, she was as common as his father had been, and Nea had still fallen for her. The musician and the singer ending up together apparently had been a generational twist.

Nea had run away right before his Noah gene had activated and apparently it had been quite the scandal. Maria suspected that the one involving Claudia was a bit more of one; disappearing acts of female nobles, even self-made ones like the Sardinis clearly were, made a bit more press.

"The kids don't get to choose?" Kanda scowled fiercely at that; before Maria, Kanda had lived a life without choice, it made sense that he despised that kind of life immediately.

"Not really," Maria said, moving back when the men began to boisterously shout. "Come along, Yu, I want words with that man about his daughter."

And then she weaved through the crowd so quickly that Kanda had to struggle to keep up.

* * *

Stefano Sardini almost slopped his tea down his frown when his butler said two people from the Black Order wished to speak with him. He'd heard about the infamous Black Order for years but had never dreamed of meeting a member (personally, he'd never really _wanted_ to), and he had to stand hastily to greet them.

The first one he saw was young, younger than his Claudia, with a head of dark hair pulled tightly back into a ponytail and there was definitely an Asian look about him. The second couldn't have been more different.

It was a woman. Stefano didn't realize that the Black Order employed women. She was slight, like the child with her, hair chestnut brown and pulled back into a similar high ponytail, with warm grey eyes that cooled at the sight of his startled surprise. But there was no mistaking the emblem on their chests, gold rather than silver in her case.

"Mr. Sardini," the woman said simply, "my name is Maria Walker, this is my student, Kanda, we'd like to hear about your daughter."

Stefano sighed, but relented. "Please," he said with a vague gesture and Maria strode forward -belatedly he realized that she was wearing well-fitted pants under the trench coat that was undoubtedly a man's, and he would've been a bit more scandalized if the situation wasn't what it was- with purposeful steps in a way that Stefano was most accustomed to seeing with soldiers than a woman affiliated with the Black Order. Behind her, the boy followed, attempting to replicate but not succeeding, but at least his scowl was frightening enough.

(Stefano did his best not to comment on the strange creature hanging in the air beside Maria, fluttering its navy-blue wings as it followed her)

When they sat, he opened his mouth and began to explain.

"It was one month ago that my daughter started talking about an ancient gladiator appearing, the night of her sixteenth birthday," he told them, hunching his shoulders deeply, "I thought at first she'd been dreaming and gave it no mind."

"But something changed?" Maria tilted her head slightly.

Stefano sighed. "She just kept saying that he would report to her at night."

"Saying what?" It was the first time the boy, Kanda, had spoken. His voice was smoother than his mentor's, which was a bit ironic.

"'The strongest man in the world has yet to appear'," Stefano put his head in his hands. "I screamed at her to stop her foolishness, but my daughter was so _convinced_ that she was telling the truth. Then, three days ago when her marriage to Viscount Paretti was due to be confirmed…" He looked down his glass of whiskey. "God, what was she _thinking?"_

"Indeed," came a deeper voice, "what _was _Miss Claudia thinking?"

Viscount Paretti entered the room, sliding the door shut behind him. Maria arched an unimpressed eyebrow. "If she married me, the Sardini family, once mere merchants, would finally have a tie to the royal family."

Maria snorted at that. "You're not a part of the royal family. Viscount is a non-hereditary title; you were appointed to assist a count in governing his province."

Viscount Paretti's stare darkened and his face twisted into an unsightly sneer. "And what would a _woman_ know of such things?"

Maria, it seemed, was used to being disparaged based on her gender. She considered him silently for a moment, keeping a hand on Kanda's shoulder when he tensed in affront at how degrading the Viscount was being towards his mentor. _"Ah_, now I remember where I heard the name Paretti before," she hummed, practically ignoring what he'd just said, "your family tried to marry into the Campbell family."

Viscount Paretti tensed.

Maria's mouth twisted in amusement. "The way I heard it Lady Katerina was very firmly _against_ the union of Cassandra Paretti and her second born." Even as twins, Nea had been born second.

"Lady Katerina was already in disgrace for the scandal of her own marriage, that proposal would've saved face for the family," the Viscount replied fiercely.

"Yes, but Katerina's brother was the head of the family and he might not've been as free-thinking as his sister, but he turned down that request because it would've meant marrying his nephew off to someone of a lesser station." Cyrus had been eccentric, there was no denying that, but he still held onto certain beliefs, at least when Mana and Nea had been younger. She didn't know if Nea had ever told anyone in the family -apart from Mana- about her.

"Tough talk about a woman who married a common musician."

Maria's eyes sharpened. "There were many things my father-in-law was, but I can assure you, his musical abilities were nowhere _near _common."

The Viscount's mouth dropped open and he gaped at her, at this _common_ _woman_, a member of an infamous order sanctified by the Vatican, and she'd been the one to marry into the family his had fought so hard to join.

She stood swiftly, Kanda following quickly. "And I think if either of you cared as much as you claimed to about Claudia, you would be out there with those men instead of hiding and waiting around for news that might not come."

Then they strode out of the room, and Maria worked not to slam the door shut behind her. Kanda gave her an odd look. "Trust me, darling, once you've dealt with the bureaucratic arrogance of men long enough, you'll want to rub accomplishments in their faces too."

Kanda made a conceding grunt of a sound. "So, your husband was a lord?"

"My husband was _nobility_, but I don't know if he would've ever worn the title of lord," Maria admitted. "But the Campbell family is still well-known and considered a noble family, despite their rather sudden deaths."

There was more to that story, Kanda could tell, but he didn't really think it was right to ask at the moment when they were already dealing with other things. "Do you think it's actually Vittorio, then?"

"I don't know," Maria sighed, cupping her chin thoughtfully as they were led back towards the main doors, "I mean, I suppose that it's possible that a man could've survived for thousands of years if that was his will and the Innocence amplified it…but it's just…_odd."_

"Because the princess in the story was sixteen?" Kanda didn't like children's stories but he didn't mind myths and legends, particularly tragic ones, but even the one she'd told about Vittorio didn't seem to be much of a story…more like a warning of ominous foreboding.

"That's another thing," she agreed. "A princess told to marry at sixteen and a daughter of a merchant whose father was going into talks about betrothing her who is just turning sixteen is a bit too coincidental, if you ask me…I've never heard of anyone summoning a ghost, though." Maria paused, a sudden inspiration hitting her. "Unless the Innocence is _hers."_

"But wouldn't that make the Innocence super old?" Kanda's brow furrowed.

"All Innocence is old," Maria's mouth twitched, "as old as Noah's Flood, if you believe in that sort of thing…supposedly the flood itself distributed the one hundred and nine pieces of Innocence across the world. It could've been that one was compatible to Sandra and just ended up in the hands of Vittorio. Innocence has an inherent desire to be one with its host, and maybe through keeping Vittorio alive and fighting it was finding a way to reach another compatible host down Sandra's line."

Maria shrugged. "It's a bit of a weak explanation, but I don't know if Vittorio is even of sound mind to answer questions once I beat him."

There was no doubt in her mind that she would and Kanda couldn't help but admire that steadfast belief in her abilities.

"Now, let's go watch those morons crash and burn, yeah?" The grin on her face had turned a bit demonic and Kanda replicated it with ease.

"Hell yeah," he said and Maria threw her head back and laughed and it took years off her.

* * *

**AN: Yeah, I'm stealing a filler plot, no one can stop me.**

**As always: REVIEW!**


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